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James Schmid, Schmid & Co Natural gas development has continued to expand in states like Pennsylvania and West Virginia, while states like Maryland and New York are proceeding cautiously while trying to gather additional information on environmental, health, and forest and habitat impacts. Development of the industry has left communities dealing with impacts from industrialization to farm and forest land to increased stormwater runoff of sediment from drilling operations, including pipelines, road, and drill pads. This panel will explore the changing landscape in the Chesapeake region in relation to clean water goals and what impacts local communities are experiencing as well sites are developed, roads are built, and pipelines are constructed. The panel will take an in-depth look at pipelines in the region and the siting, regulatory, safety, and environmental aspects to consider when transporting water and natural gas throughout the region.
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Potential Impacts of Natural Gas Production and
Transmission
James A. SchmidSchmid & Co., Inc., Consulting Ecologists
Media, Pennsylvania
5 June 2013
Gas must be moved by pipeline, not by truck or rail.
Its extraction and transmission threaten waterresources and people. The industry is minimallyregulated. Shale gas poses a much greater threatthan conventional gas production.
(Post-Production)
About 5 acres 10 feet deep---just beneath the DEP permit threshold. Fresh water is one thing,returned frackwater from wells, something else.
Drilling Water Reservoir – Fresh and/or Return WaterDrilling Water Reservoir – Fresh and/or Return Water
Water taken to/from reservoir by pipe or tanker truckWater taken to/from reservoir by pipe or tanker truck
This small frackwater pipeline joint failure caused loss of more than
10,000 gallons of fluid resulting in a fish kill in High Quality Brush Run
watershed, Washington County, 2009. Damage to fish, salamanders,
frogs, and oligochaetes here was recorded by PADEP.
Casing leaks = water pollution
Typical Hydrofracturing Fluid
“Slickwater”
What Comes Out of a Fracked Well in the Return Water?
1. Chemicals put into the ground in the slickwater mix (varies)
2. Chemicals extracted from the ancient ocean-bottom deposits
Example Concentrations (milligrams/Liter = parts per million)
Chemical Drinking Water Typical PA Typical Marcellus Increase Standard, USEPA Groundwater Flowback Over Typical________________________________________________________________Total Dissolved Solids <500 163 67,300 413x
Sodium 7 18,000 2,571x
Chloride <250 5 41,850 8,370x
Bromide 0.016 445 27,813x
Old, abandoned wells may be intercepted and allow escapeof fracking fluid, as inthis geyser (2012).
Well pad fire, Avela PA, February 2011
Bradford County, Pennsylvania
Gathering Line Crossing Wetlands
Compressor stations push gas along the pipes.
Detailed Plans Exist Onlyfor Big Interstate Pipelines
Pipelines Cross Steep Slopes and Cause Erosion
Welding is Critical
for Pipeline Safety
SCRANTONTIMES-TRIBUNE
Few spillsmake news.
Pennsylvania waives regulation of obstructions and encroachments in streams draining fewer than 100 acres.
That’s more than half the land area in the Commonwealth.
952 “serious” violations of PADEP regulations at shale gas
wells by 43 drillers over a 30-month period, 2008-2010.
Shale Gas Development in Pennsylvania
Prepared by Clean Water Action
Smaller diameter,Lower pressurePipes
Retail Gas DistributionMeters
Roadside Retail Distribution Gas Meters, Butler County PA
Fire from the buildup of gas from a distribution line leak in a private home.
In this incident of pipeline failure there was no fire or explosion. The crater was created by the pressure of the gas coming out. A section of pipe was hurled into the right background area of the photograph.
Appomattox, Virginia, Pipeline Fire, 2008
Appomattox, Virginia, 2008
Interstate Transmission Pipe Corrosion, Appomattox VA, 2008
Eight persons dead, 58 injured, 38 homes destroyed, 70 damaged in this incident in San Bruno, California, 10 September 2010. The 30-inch pipe- line was 62 years old and operated at 365 psig pressure (MAOP 400) on the day of rupture. Nearly 48 million cubic feet of gas were released.
Potential Impacts of Natural Gas Production and
Transmission
James A. SchmidSchmid & Co., Inc., Consulting Ecologists
Media, Pennsylvania
5 June 2013
Enbridge Kalamazoo, Michigan, Dilbit Spill, 2010 Cleanup Cost approaching $1 billion
