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Just the Fracks, Ma’am

By: Steve Maley (Diary)  |  February 24th, 2013 at 05:14 PM  | 

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FoxFrackCartoon1Natural gas is a cheap, abundant American resource, and cleaner than all of its viable alternatives to boot. It would be hard for a reasonable person not to favor natural gas as a component of our national energy mix, but then anti-frackers like Josh Fox, Yoko Ono and their ilk put little value on being reasonable people. They are the neo-Luddites resisting a modern energy revolution, standing between the people and the prosperity promised by affordable domestic energy.

We’ve considered Fox and his irrational fear-mongering before. His Gasland cartoon (above) clearly suggests that the well-stimulation process known as fracking can directly contaminate ground water since the induced fractures in the horizontal section of a gas well propagate into water-bearing aquifers. The scenario Fox depicts is categorically impossible. The fracturing process is applied to wells 5,000 feet and more below ground level. Fresh water is usually at 1,000 feet or less. A fracture induced at depth tends to grow vertically, but at shallower depths, the preferred direction of growth would be horizontal, parallel to the surface. (Engineers may recognize the principle from Strength of Materials: the plane of failure is perpendicular to the least principal stress.)

Field measurement with sensitive seismic equipment has verified the theory. Using an array of sensitive microphones, one can map the points of rupture in underground strata during a fracture treatment. Surveys in hundreds of wells in multiple basins confirm that fractures stay separated from fresh water aquifers by thousands of feet.

Yoko’s argument takes a different tack. In her Christmas Day letter to The New York Times, her main concern was well construction and isolation of well pressure from ground water zones:

Cement in wells many thousands of feet under the earth cracks and leaks under the great pressure and temperature changes. No one can be sent thousands of feet under the earth to make repairs once this happens.

Industry documents show that 6 percent of the wells leak immediately and that 60 percent leak over time, poisoning drinking water and putting the powerful greenhouse gas methane into our atmosphere.

Steve Everley does a good job of debunking this argument here. The source of Yoko’s factoid (repeated ad nauseum in anti-fracking propaganda) is one graph in a decade-old paper. As Everley points out (emphasis is his):

… the graph refers to offshore wells in the Gulf of Mexico. The data came directly from the now-defunct Minerals Management Service, which was the federal agency tasked with regulating offshore oil and gas development in federal waters. The caption also states clearly: “These data do not include wells in state waters or land locations.”

Sustained casing pressure is a phenomenon that is common and usually manageable in offshore wells. It does not signify leakage and merits repair only in the most extreme cases. You can’t extrapolate an offshore issue to onshore horizontal wells of different construction in an entirely dissimilar geological setting.

It would be like using issues with the Boeing 787 as an excuse to ground military aircraft. There’s no connection.

Besides the fracking process and well construction, the only other possible avenue for ground water contamination is the mishandling of fluids at the surface. It does happen. It can also be prevented with training and high standards for operating.

It’s a mistake to look at the process of hydraulic fracturing in isolation. There are risks of industrial spills all around us every day. Huge volumes of toxic and noxious fluids and chemicals (like solvents, acids and anhydrous ammonia) move on our roads, railroads and waterways and we hardly give it a second thought. The oilfield solutions, by comparison, are much more dilute; frack fluid is mostly water and sand with 1/2% chemical additives. The chemicals used in fracking may have scary-sounding names but similar (and worse) concoctions can be found under the typical household sink.

One last point to ponder: Drilling and fracking a big-league horizontal well is an $8- to $10 million dollar proposition. Spills and failures of well construction can jeopardize a well or even an entire company. The operating company has every motivation to get it right.

Cross-posted at my energy blog.

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COMMENTS

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  • OhioHistorian

    I thought that was the purpose of all of these bureaucrats was to make all of this stuff safe. If they can’t, then why are we paying them?

    Liberals want it both ways; huge government to regulate and laws which prohibit everything. If that is what Yoko wants, then she is only a bicyclist, right? Or does she use many times her allotment of energy? How about Fox? He probably has spent his energy ration on Google.

  • DerKrieger

    As a conservative and an engineer I’d like to see the political leanings of the engineering community. I’d be willing to wager that most are Republicsns. Being an engineer requires too much logical thinking for an engineer to be a Liberal. It would require holding two contradictory positions simultaneously.

  • DerKrieger

    And the Left doesn’t really care about the safety of fracking, their goal is to stop the use of all fossil fuels. Period.

  • alvin691

    In my experience the engineers are conservatives, except for the architectural and industrials. They have been taken over by the arts and human resources types. The Execs of these companies are left.

  • stevemaley

    Right now these things are regulated by the states, and they do a pretty good job. The fight is to keep it out of the hands of the Feds, and the EPA in particular. Ohio regulators are in the best position to regulate Ohio, because they live there and presumably care, and because a set of rules that covers OH and CA and TX and ND (and 46 other states) would necessarily be imprecise and unwieldy.

  • randydutton

    Anti-Frackers are Anti-Union. Union workers benefit mostly from cheap energy and the fossil fuels industry. Anti-Frackers are also anti-Government worker because the fossil fuels industry and the industries that rely upon them pay a great deal of tax money to cities, counties, states, and the feds, necessary to pay government workers salaries.

  • mesocyclone

    I’ve known a heck of a lot of liberal software engineers. Studies have shown that engineering faculty tend to be Democrats by a ratio of 10-20 to 1. The university environment breeds liberalism. It enforces liberalism. That mental disturbance has made its way into engineering and hard sciences.

  • norris

    Natural gas in a water well is not unusual in southwest Ohio . There is no fracking within 100 miles of here and we have had natural gas in water wells for over 50 years . Most are in small amounts not enough for commercial use ,some in populated areas have to be plugged for safety reasons.

  • davesinsanantonio

    But, “imprecise and unwieldy” is what the liberals want. That allows them to make up rules on the fly without bothering to check the facts. Liberals love to do this because it gives them real power over others. If they have to rely on facts, then the people with the facts have the real power, not the liberal bureaucrats. Nor, the media who trumpet all their nonsense as if it was spoken by God from the mountaintop, even though they just made it up themselves.

  • davesinsanantonio

    But, you don’t understand—fracking is so bad it can even travel back in time and cause devastation to the water table in the past. And, if you don’t believe that you are a racist. And, besides that it is all Bush’s fault. He was such a bad president that he interfered with Ohio’s water decades before he became president. That’s why we have to ban assault weapons and put more kids in Head Start.

  • sliverlining

    Having worked in many of the engineering disciplines in the automotive realm, I have to agree. It is always instructive to the new grads when faced with reality: science and people that have made their living with reality.
    The smart ones figure out quickly what was junk science and politics in their educational journey. The stupid ones (liberal no matter what) get ignored after they are found out.
    That doesn’t mean there is no effect on the group. The constant feed of liberal group think penetrates even engineering. Thankfully physical properties and making a profit can’t co-exist with fantasyland very well.

  • sliverlining

    The automotive executive types are interested in sales, image, and brand loyalty. This requires the nod toward touchy, feely crap. They have to at least appear to care for those reasons. Part of their job is being a figurehead after all.
    Maybe some are truly leftwingers but I’m sure the act only goes so deep for lots of businessmen (and businessbroads too ; )

  • sliverlining

    YES! That’s how I got my last 3 AR-15′s . . . I turned on the kitchen faucet and they fell out into the sink. They were hot from all the burning gas but they cooled off. The only thing that surprised me was that the 30 round magazines fit through the hole. I better call the plumber to bring it to code.

    I wonder if there’s a Yoko’s List?
    “roofers and plumbers and dentists and more . . .”

  • WY_Cowboy

    Fracking = Jobs.

  • stevemaley

    Yes, there are a multitude of other zones that would stop the vertical growth of the frack. If that were not true, we would expect to see some of these fractures even extending to the surface. I’ve not seen any claims of that…

  • edintexas

    Exactly, and exactly part of the problem. If a person has a job, that person is not on welfare, interminable unemployment or SSA Disability payments. That person is not dependent upon government. This is an unwelcome outcome.

  • harvey817

    The concerns are not about the safety of our water or person. The administration was to eliminate fossil fuels and drive the cost of using it so high that it is prohibitive to the average person. The peasants will not be able to afford fossil fuels but the privileged will. Remember Odumba stated he wanted prices to match the cost of fossil fuels in Europe. He was surprised that they rose for fast. HE is against us and we had better wake up. When we let this domestic terrorist and his minions take away Constitutional Rights without a fight we will be peasants.

  • rightlane1111

    With the prices over $4.00 a gallon…and this is having an effect on the economy…WE ARE A NET EXPORTER OF OIL. Further…you can see that Obama is not about saving America, i.e., the XL Pipeline..he is about destroying it.

  • rightlane1111

    Oh…one more comment…why has Obama not converted commercial vehicles to run on natural gas. Easy conversion…easy for the gas stations also. Cheap…but oh no…we can’t do that. Obama is a walking oxymoron..He wants electric cars…OK…he shuts down are electric power plants on the East Coast. This is why he wants people out of rural areas…easier to control.

    He’s got this new E15 gas…I hope nobody approves that…although he will probably do it by EO and this ruins engines. Bankrupt this country…this is his goal and he is doing it.

  • mogul264

    I’m no engineer, but it seems that trying to pump water from depths over 1000 feet or so is next to impossible! You’d need multiple pumps inline in the pipe, as one alone will NOT pull water that far. You would wind up generating a vacuum, with NO water flow, a problem even at 1000 feet, as the water is too heavy for suction!

    These fool politicians should consult a seismologist, seismic engineer, drilling guy, or someone with REAL geologic knowledge, not the typical ‘sky is falling’ nut! Perhaps THEN they would have all the facts!

  • mogul264

    That’s because software engineers tend to be those who play video games, smoke pot, and such, grounded in la-la land, not the real world!

  • johnwb

    Liberal engineer here, (Chem. Eng). I’m not sure about the ratio of Liberal to Conservative engineers, but I imagine it’s not much different to the general population. I recall that when I was an undergrad most arts majors were on the left, agriculture (we had a large ag. faculty) were right-wing and we engineers pretty much in the middle. In fact the work load on engineering students is usually such as to preclude much political (or even social) activity!

    That said, and regardless of whether one is a Democrat, a Republican or any other political persuasion, I would hope that being an engineer would make one more inclined to analyze issues critically, based on available scientific data and without bias.

    Energy vs Environment is a trade-off. To make the best, most informed decisions we need good data and good analysis, and it’s sad that in the current political climate every conversation becomes a left-vs-right issue. These things are important and we can’t afford to have agenda-driven folks on either side pre-judge and spin the numbers; whether for fracking, reducing carbon emissions or saving the lesser spotted owl. What we need is policy based on good science – no more and no less. And by the way, being a critical thinker allows, even demands, that one change one’s opinion in light of new evidence.

    On a side note, one of the problems with sites like Redtstate (and this applies equally to its’ left-wing counterparts), is that many submitters pull out these random articles and present them as if this sort of nonsense is standard thinking on the “other side”. It’s not. Mr Fox and Ms Ono don’t represent the mainstream. In his State of the Union address President Obama said that his administration “will take every possible action” to safely expand shale gas drilling efforts. “The development of natural gas will create jobs and power trucks and factories that are cleaner and cheaper, proving that we don’t have to choose between our environment and our economy.” He couldn’t be any clearer than that.

  • Ari

    The Lefty bureaucrat brain cavity cannot accept one sq millimeter more of rational, common sense reality… As it is anti-matter to the peanut sized “superior intellect” of the Lefty liberal progressive brain function. IE KRYPTONITE to lefty super ego.

  • Ari

    EXCUSE ME! It has NEVER ben about “Facts” much less truth. See movie by same name… “The Agenda”

  • Ari

    Even with the already blossoming of genetic manipulation and regenerative body organs etc. GEORGE SOROS knows his days are numbered prior to such for him.

    His life goal is the end (destruction) of the greatest nation ever on the earth.

    How I hate the spirit in this man. And also of how many others share his hatred of human freedom, and man’s image in that of the CREATOR.

  • Ari

    LONG LIVE THE SPIRIT OF HUMAN INDEPENDENCE & DIGNITY!

  • Ari

    I CAN SEE their ideal UTOPIA! only Mercedes and Rolls at an infrequency of not more than 1 vehicle per mile on all interstate roads across the globe. Now the elite can enjoy the view uncontaminated by inferior slugs. (Also solo exploration of all national parks.)
    And of COURSE! Idiot conservatives have no rights to enjoy such elevated utopia.

  • perdido

    America’s other major deficit: Critical Thinking.

  • The_Gadfly

    If you believe The Big 0 couldn’t be any clearer and that he is interested in developing natural gas, it’s obvious you have NOT critically evaluated the evidence. Every action he has taken has decreased fossil fuel (whether it be oil, gas or coal) production on lands over which he exerts even minimal control.