Study Uses Tracing Fluid in Fracking Brine to Identify Threat

A new Department of Energy study on fracking brine, is being conducted in Pennsylvania to determine if fracking brine migrates and affects drinking water.

The gas drilling company participating let researchers add tracing fluid to their hydraulic fracturing fluids before injecting the fluids 8,100 feet into the ground.

The company hopes to prove with this one (out of thousands upon thousands) well that fracking brine does not migrate.

While it is a great start to research one meager well and the voluntary participation of the gas company is noteworthy, one case study cannot be presented as scientific proof; as it is, in fact, only one well while multiple sets of circumstances can affect the results of a study like this.

While the results are not in yet on this one case study, drawing conclusions from a single test would be like the FDA approving a drug after testing a new medication on a single patient.

When the results come in, I'll be sure to share them.

Fracking Industry Word-Play

Now that fracking brine injection has been determined as the source of a series of Ohio earthquakes, some pro-fracking writers and industry professionals have concluded that the true meaning of the results are: that fracking has nothing to do with earthquakes and the two are events, fracking and earthquakes are unrelated. (Sorry about that run-on sentence.)

So, a few points come immediately to mind (feel free to share your thoughts):

1. If there was no fracking, there would be no brine to inject.
2. The last I heard, the kind of high pressure (the amount of PSI) used to dump brine into disposal wells (causing earthquakes) is the same high pressure used to originally frack the wells in the first place; so, saying the dumping caused the eartquakes and not the drilling, is just word-play.
3. The lack of earthquakes at drill sites so far has more to do with luck, if you can call it that, than it has to do with the difference between drilling and dumping. (Another run-on, sorry about that one, too.)
4. Unrelated to brine injection, but having to do with roadway brine dumping in Ohio and other fracked states, according to one Forbes article, and I guess the EPA, "The U.S. EPA considers the deep injection of brine using Class II disposal wells as the preferred and environmentally safe method for disposal of oilfield fluid wastes."
5. So, why is this toxic stuff dumped on Ohio and many other states' roadways if the EPA says it should be propelled deep into the earth (and that brings us back to the earthquake thing)?
6. And, if brine causes earthquakes when injected deep into the earth, which is after all the preferred disposal method, isn't it time to find a way to do this safely - or at least stop doing it until they figure out a safe way instead of a way that is only safe if they throw in enough word-play?

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I'm not against fracking; I know people need jobs, desperately. I'm against companies putting people's lives and health at risk for the sake of a fast buck, or even millions of fast bucks.

Ohio's New Fracking Regulations

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) has announced a new set of rules for hydraulic fracturing (frac) disposal, spurred in part by the recent decision and announcement that fracking brine injection at waste water disposal sites caused a series of earthquakes near Youngstown, Ohio.

According to the ODNR, the new rules are among the toughest brine dumping rules in the nation. The new rules apply to new injection well sites as well as existing waste water injection sites.

A Brief Summary of Ohio's New Brine Injection Rules

• No new wells will be permitted to be drilled into the Precambrian basement rock formation.
• Existing wells going into the Precambrian basement rock formation will have to be capped with cement - or more accurately - the ODNR will have the authority to require their capping.
• Operators (drillers) will be required to submit extensive geological data before drilling under the new rules.
• The new regulations require up to date, effective pressure and volume monitoring devices; to include automatic shut-off switches and electronic data recorders.
• Under the new rules, brine haulers will be required to install electronic transponders, thereby ensuring “cradle to grave” monitoring of all shipments.

The full report is available on the ODNR website.

Fracking Brine Coming to Mansfield, Ohio

This is a follow-up to an earlier post about fracking brine injection wells slated for inner-Mansfield.

According to the latest news in The Mansfield News Journal, the Mansfield City Law Director has informed concerned citizens attempting to fight the propesed injection sites they have no legal standing.

Again, according to the News Journal article, Spon, the City Law Director, is working to help concerned citizens while taking the calming approach of somewhat downplaying the significance of using the inner-city industrial park site as a dumping ground for fracking brine, stating that the issue is not fracking itself, and is simply fracking-related brine.

The points that are easy to overlook in this issue are:

• This is not a salt-water brine like your grandmother would have used to make pickles, this is the same toxin-filled brine that is used for fracking. Calling it fracking-related brine  does not change what it is.
• It only takes one small bubble in the injection well's concrete casing to allow a toxic cocktail to leak out into the local water supply. (Have you ever seen concrete that didn't have at least one small bubble?)
• The injection well casing only goes so far down, so after that depth it only takes one weak spot in the underlying ground (something no one among us can control) to allow a leak.
• The fact that Ohio already has 184 of these deep-well fracking brine injection sites, dumps the stuff on the roadway to control ice and dusts, and (in some counties) coats road salt with it does not mean it is safe. (Is it honestly safe or have Ohioans so far simply been lucky there have been no larger problems?) In fact, if, like most everything else that affects human life, the fracking brine toxins have a cumulative effect... well, it's accumulating - you can fill in the rest.

So I'll end this post with a link to the original post on this site and another to the News Journal article, Mansfield Can't Fight Fracking Waste Wells, covering this so you can check out the original source if you want to, and a wish for Mansfield residents and all of us, that a safe resolution for disposing of fracking brine can be found before it's too late.