Colorado State University Releases a Study Addressing Water Quality and Methane Migration

On October 21, 2015, professors within the Colorado State University’s Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering released a study entitled “Concurrence of aqueous and gas phase contamination of groundwater in the Wattenberg oil and gas field of northern Colorado” published in the Elsevier academic journal. The study examines the likelihood of groundwater methane contamination resulting from unconventional oil and gas drilling in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, Colorado.

The researchers observed that gas and contaminants present in produced water are more likely to migrate into drinking water wells due to improperly sealed wellbores or casing impairment. They also analyzed the ionic composition of the Laramie-Fox Hills aquifer underlying the shale basin before comparing both presence of thermogenic methane and produced-water based contaminants into the aquifer.

Thermogenic methane is defined as a gas “produced at greater depths through high pressure and temperature processes, characteristic of deep oil and gas reservoirs that conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon wells tap.”

The researchers concluded that groundwater contamination is more likely to happen due to thermogenic methane migration than it is to result from unconventional oil and gas drilling. The study states that “[t]he results of these analyses indicate no concurrent gas and liquid phase contamination of groundwater from oil and gas activity.”

Written by Chloe Marie - Research Fellow

11/12/2015

A released study addresses wastewater production volumes in Pennsylvania

On August 20, 2015, Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center (SGICC) published a report entitled “Shale Gas Development – Summary of Shale Gas Wastewater Treatment and Disposal in Pennsylvania.” The report assesses the evolution in wastewater issues associated with unconventional oil and gas drilling in Pennsylvania from 2011 to 2014. It comes as an update to a previous report issued in 2012.

The researchers pointed out that the amount of wastewater production remained fairly steady from 2011 to 2014 with approximately 1.8 billion gallons of produced wastewater. As stated in the report, of the 2014 estimated amount of wastewater, “about 91 percent is recycled or stored for future drilling . . . [o]nly 7.9 percent is discharged to underground injection and a much smaller amount, only about 1.1 percent is discharged to surface water.” The researchers acknowledged the effort the industry has made to implement recently adopted Pennsylvania regulations.

Also, the report observed that the volume of produced water has increased compared with flowback water and, as a result, opined that “in the future as the number of producing wells increase without a matching proportional increase in frac water needs, recycling treated wastewater to the next frac job will become more difficult.” 

Written by Chloe Marie - Research Fellow

08/31/2015