Taking the fractiousness out of fracking

As the prospect of natural-gas development draws nearer, no issue has caused more concern than hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” and no one has been more concerned about fracking than the members of the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance.

As many know, fracking involves pumping millions of gallons of water and fine sand down a well bore to crack open rock thousands of feet beneath the surface and to keep the cracks open so the gas trapped in the rock flows out.

Drillers add substances to enhance the water’s fracturing power: surfactants to reduce friction so the water penetrates the rock more easily, gels to help sweep the sand into the cracked rock, biocides to kill bacteria that could choke the cracks and chemicals to fight mineral deposits and scales.

If well bores are not lined with steel casings properly sealed with cement, the fracking chemicals could infiltrate aquifers. Beyond that, a percentage of the fracking solution flows back to the surface and now contains quantities of mineral salts. Our region lacks facilities to treat this “brine” to remove or neutralize any substances it might hold.

Members of the alliance believe they have found partners who will let our region have the vitalizing economic benefits of gas drilling while minimizing the environmental risks. Members have signed leasing agreements that will allow a pair of firms to use recently proven technology to safely search out and exploit the natural gas in the Marcellus Shale underlying our region.

The Hess Corporation is providing the financial resources; the Newfield Exploration Company will drill the wells, and Newfield has equipment to reduce the water used. Vertical well bores, the so-called “down holes,” will be drilled with devices powered by compressed air that use no water at all.

Additionally, Newfield has contracted with Ecosphere Technologies to manage and recycle the water used. At each drilling site, Ecosphere will set up a mobile treatment system to remove bacteria and eliminate the causes of scale and corrosion in the well bore. This will allow Newfield to reduce surfactant use by 50 percent and eliminate biocides and anti-scalants entirely.

The water that flows back from a well will be filtered repeatedly, treated with ozone and high-power ultrasound and desalinated with reverse osmosis. The treated water will be stored in closed, mobile containers that can be taken to other well sites.

Ecosphere says the recycled fracking water will meet or exceed the potability standards used by municipal water systems. Newfield and Ecosphere expect to reuse all the drilling fluids. Beyond that, after a final treatment, any leftover water can be released into the environment without danger.

Recycling frack water in a closed-loop system will reduce withdrawals from creeks and rivers. At places with multiple wells, the water will be onsite already, and transporting water from one site to the next will likely involve much less mileage than going to sources of fresh water.

Alliance members want their lands protected and insist on having assurances that our community water resources will not be harmed. Members are confident that natural gas development can be carried out in an environmentally sound manner, and that we can have responsible natural gas development in Wayne County, as others have had in states and communities across America.

(Longtime free-lance journalist Peter Wynne is a member of the Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance ( nwpoa.info ), which represents more than 1,300 landowner families and more than 70,000 acres, chiefly in northern Wayne and Susquehanna counties.)

This monthly column is a part of a valley-wide initiative to encourage an engaged citizenry. visit upperdelaware.com For a complete archive of visioning statements and for more about the visioning initiative.