Fracking will cause ‘irreversible harm’
Shale-gas extraction after-affects will threaten drinking water, could jeopardize agriculture, expert says
By Kevin Dougherty, Montreal Gazette March 4, 2011
Marc Durand specializes in rock mechanics and hydrogeology. He gets it. Not only does he know that hydraulic fracturing will cause “irreversible harm” has says it will last for thousands of years. He also knows who will ultimately be stuck paying for the cleanup: the taxpayers. And, it won’t be cheap.
“The billions required would be much more than all the profits beckoning now,” said the retired Université du Québec à Montréal professor.
He says the shale wells will last about 8 years and only about 20% of the gas is recoverable, which is exactly in line with what we call the Shale Gas Shell Game.
As a hydrogeologist Durand understands that things are in static in the strata.
The rock formations shattered by fracking will be “thousands of times more permeable,” allowing the remaining 80 per cent of shale gas and underground water, 10 times more salty than sea water, to continue circulating, bubbling to the surface through the disused gas wells.
Over time, methane could leak into the groundwater and gas leaks could gush, uncontrolled, into the air.
“Because this happens deep below, it is not visible on the surface,” Durand wrote in a paper raising questions about shale gas.
Go read the whole article. It’s full of juicy quotes.
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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Shale gas drilling must be the worst idea ever inflicted on mankind. Seems all they talk about are all the great jobs…jobs that are so dangerous to the workers. I guess it gets down to a dangerous job is better than no job. Wow. No regulations. No unions. Rick Perry. It's an all around tragedy for us.
While we are on the subject of geology, I have two questions. Has anyone read that the chlorides injected into waste wells can actually dissolve some rock formations like sandstone? If aquifers are almost depleted (pumped dry) this allows for a bacteria, I am not sure if the term bacteria is correct, but the end result is high iron content in the aquifer? (water turns reddish)
Interesting article. I have done a little work in fracture mechanics in my aerospace job and was very interested to read this aticle.
From fracture mechanics 101 – Crack tips have a stress concentration of nearly infinity and only stop when the crack grows into a continuum with sufficient ductility to retard the growth. When the stress in the crack tip region drops below the residual comprehesive stress of the surrounding continuum, the crack stops.
I know that the argument the gas company geologists use is the cracks have to pass through so many strata on their way up to the surface that they certainly will pass through something that is ductile. And they argue that every strata below ground level is under varying degrees of compressive stress to help retard the growth as well.
This argument does have some merit since the truth is – all the strata is cracked to one degree or another already and has found someway to relieve itself.
However, I have never heard a good argument of why it's OK for a whole new family of cracks to grow from 7000 feet down (Barnett depth) up to, say 4000 feet? 3000 feet? In fact, no one has been able to tell me a number, on average, of how far the fracturing extends up. The truth, I fear, is that they don't know.
I am still convinved that the groundwater contamination being caused by fracturing is due to bad casing jobs – that just seems 100% more likely to me.
If Dr. Durand has written any technical papers on this topic, I'd love to read them. They would be way too dry and technical for a newspaper article, but I'd love to see the technical basis for why he is making the claims he is making.
Hey, save some blame for FW Mayor Mike Mioncrief. He's more responsible for the BS mess than Perry.
This article is more proof that gas drilling is ultimately a net loss for society. That is, us, future gens and our environment.
Interesting comment, Tillotson. In Garza vs Coastal, it was confirmed that fracks went 3000 feet. Somewhere along the 400 ft to 3000 ft +/- (who the hell knows?) frack crack, the fracture is likely to cross paths with natural fractures that lead to who knows where. This has geologists I know quite worried. That and the subsidence.
The frackers would know. If their using radioactive tracers in the sand to determine where and how far the frack cracks go.
They use acids in the fracturing process SPECIFICALLY to dissolve the rocks. It makes the fracs extend farther.
Good comments Tillotson. You are correct. In addition, these fractures that are induced in the deep shale formation almost always result in "VERTICAL FRACTURES", meaning that they propogate upwards from the source toward less natural pressures. The highest pressure is nearest the source, which is next to the casing and cement. These fractures, expecially for vertical and directional wells will result in damage to the cement and even damage the casing and connections–thereby allowing long distance migrations upward to more shallower sources and eventually to water aquifers!!
David, the sand gets trapped and doesn't travel the whole fracture. They like the larger sand crystals so they prop open the fracks. That also means they do not flow.
You see the problem is that the giant energy corporations have billions of shareholders and these shareholders will pull out selling their shares and causing them to potentially go bankrupt if the energy companies are not seen to be piling on the value by remaining the most important energy suppliers.