The second session I chose to watch was entitled, “The Role
of Water”, presented by Ken Carlson. A
simple overview of the processes involved in water use for hydraulic fracturing
was discussed, noting that water used for such purposes is injected at
incredible pressures, often greater than 10,000 psi up to depths of 6-7,000 ft.
The crux of the injection process involves the flowback of used water from the
well back to the surface, where they return often still under very high
pressures. Dr. Carlson clarified that
the produced water that returns to the surface with oil and gas is a harmful
fluid, as it contains benzene, toluene, and other components of the rock
formation as well as the initial proprietary fluids, which are not disclosed by
the energy companies to the public, that can continue to flow out for the
lifetime of the well.
Handling of
the “flowback” fluid after it returns to the surface was an area where he felt
much improvement could be made, in terms of cleaning and recycling these
waters, in order to safely return it to the watershed. He noted that annual water use in Colorado by
well-developers would serve about 200,000 people in Colorado if were not used
for drilling purposes. Also, without cleaning of these flowback water sources,
water used for well development is considered to have 100% consumptive use,
which does not allow it to safely return to the watershed. Looking specifically
at the disposal and transport component, it was forecasted that with chemicals,
sand, and water hauling, there were between 8-11,000 truck trips occurring
annually to support the well-development process.
The point that I was intrigued to
hear was that 0.08% of Colorado’s water was being withdrawn to serve well
development and gas processing. In terms
of what came of these waters once used, Dr. Carlson discussed research that
measured the chemical composition of groundwater constituents, which interestingly
enough, refuted the “Gasland” highlight of burning water by noting that this
was caused by the biogenic breakdown of other gases from a shallower depth.
He brought to light a series of
“Best Practices” for the hydraulic fracturing process which discussed
“Monitoring and Reporting”, treatment of wastewater and reduction of freshwater
use, improvements to water quantity and quality usage, and also the integration
of a “closed loop drilling system to the hydraulic fracturing process,
protective site liners, and use of green fracturing fluids. These steps, in conjunction with further
regulation and integration of community input/involvement, were steps that he
felt could readily be integrated to improve on the current well-development
process, while remaining relatively impartial to the demands of proponents and
opponents.
The 0.08% water usage piqued my
interest and I caused me to look into the forecasted rate of water use by the
well-developers and producers. According
to an article found in Energywire
entitled “Niobrara Shale: As drilling grows, so do water use worries in Colo.”,
water use for well-development and production was 4.5 billion gallons in 2010
and was anticipated to increase by 33% to 6 billion gallons by 2015 to meet
these needs. These values were provided
in light of an auction that had taken place in Northeastern Colorado where 8
billion gallons of unallocated water was auctioned off, primarily to
agriculture, but to a greater extent than usual by companies that serve the oil
and gas industry (Streater 2012) This article gave gravity to the immense
volume of water being consumed in order to serve the oil and gas industry. With drought conditions, competition by
agriculture to acquire and retain water sources, and growing urban and rural
populations, such purchases will almost surely culminated in bitter court feuds
in the not so distant future.
The take home is that
well-developers and producers are demanding greater quantities of water for
their needs, while not necessarily optimizing the use of the flowback water
which is abundant and has the potential to be recycled and used again.
Streater, Scott. 2012. ”Niobrara Shale: As
drilling grows, so do water use worries in Colo.”, Energywire. http://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1059962506
(accessed 10/21/13). 
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