Barnett Shale operators say there’s nothing in their frac waste but some salt water and some clay. (Please note that saltwater, on it’s own, will render our drinking water unusable.)
Below is the Form W-14 attachment that is filed with each and every injection well permit. This one was filed by Hydro FX, Inc., when they applied for an injection well permit in Boyd, Texas. This is the very same injection well that failed, but I’ll get to that later. Click the form to enlarge.
Are we supposed to believe that you list all that just to practice your vocabulary? Essentially, that Form W-14 allows operators to put any damn thing they want down the drilling hole and into the ground.
Now, about that Hydro FX injection well failure: When the good citizens of Boyd were fighting this Hydro FX well, they spent $15,000 to $20,000 but they lost the fight. Hydro FX drilled and operated the injection well until it failed, for the very reasons the citizens of Boyd predicted.
From the Denton Record Chronicle:
Joling headed up a neighborhood group that fought the initial permitting of the Hydro-FX well in 2003. He said residents had some idea what might happen, knowing a little about the area’s geology and the failure of a similar injection well in Chico at the time.
“That well broke out and the waste came to the surface,” Joling said. “So you know it passed through freshwater tables to get there.”
The neighbors pooled their money to commission an independent hydrologist to study the Hydro-FX plans. That study predicted the failure that has now occurred, Joling said.
The permit was revoked but you won’t believe the reason. It was revoked NOT because the RRC or the Barnett Shale operators or anyone else was concerned for the citizens of Boyd and their drinking water. It was revoked because the well failure negatively effected gas production in the surrounding gas wells. (Still think they care about you, your children or your parks?)
From the Denton Record Chronicle:
The new injection well permits come even as the railroad commission shut down an injection well near Boyd in Wise County on Jan. 22. Operated by Hydro-FX, Inc., a subsidiary of Star of Texas Energy Services, about 4 miles west of Boyd, the injection well began to affect production in nearby gas wells prior to its closure.
Once the Hydro-FX well was closed,pressure at the nearby gas wells decreased, according to Nye.
People living on nearby ranches are beginning to have problems with their water wells, too, according to Jim Joling, who lives near the Hydro-FX well.
“I’ve gotten calls from two people near the wells who say their water is bad,” Joling said.
Also see State shuts down well.
Now, Hydro FX has applied for another permit so the process starts again and the citizens of Boyd are on their own in this fight.
I’ll be posting more permits and additional documentation.
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.
- Web |
- More Posts(5121)
Hydro-FX got their permit back! Woo-Hooo! But time! We need it’s business. Thank you RRC. Trust me people…this IS the only way for you to purchase your gas. Don’t want gas…..freeze!
In 2003 the EPA called our offices and asked if we could come to Texas and evaluate a situation that was occuring with what was being called a “Slick Frac Water”. I am Director of Research at Cal-Neva Water Quality Research Institute in California and we came and did a full water analysis on this water to see what comatminates it contained and our results showed that this water had up to 220,000 PPM of Chlorides in it, plus it was carrying two radio active isotopes of Uranium, and up to 5 times as much Arsenic as the state of Texas allowed to be dumped anywhere. This water will work its way up from these down hole disposal wells just as it has in Wyoming and Montana where the EPA are not allowing any more of this type of disposal. We have developed a new technology to deal with this water that took over three years to develop and is available to any company that needs our service. Simply google dr abe beagles on the Internet to get facts on this technology.