So where's the water go when they bust(fracking) the rock deep in the ground? I know, it's illegal for the clean drinking water in the ground to mix with the oil that has now found a path to one another. If it's so on the up and up, why have these people, including their young children who settled with a company doing fracking in Pennsylvania. Been ordered to NEVER, EVER speak of fracking the rest of their life? Hmmmm, paid to shut thir mouth.
I'm guessing it indeed was to shut their mouth as the folks were "long-term shale gas critics", according to the article. No doubt some young or old-hand attorney felt it wise and cheap to keep from experiencing continual court action on both sides to pay and seal the deal.
We live in a litigious society these days.
It was a smart move and one not guaranteed to be from simple fear of comment.
Equally no doubt, those folks were not mineral rights owners.
But I also expect that the activity and noise were not what the family signed on for when they began living in that location....that can happen and never is a good thing on an individual basis.
Same to a degree as an Interstate cutting the mountains or Canaan Valley in WVa being inundated with timeshares and condos and becoming a sad shell of the valley it once was.
Still, folks benefitted from that Interstate and those condos....and some folks had their lifestyle altered.
A study was completed this year by an independent national lab on the possibility of contamination from Marcellus activity in Pennsylvania and fresh water wells after receiving many complaints.
Any negative connection came up a blank....zero, zilch.
Most understand that the 8K depth of the Marcellus versus the fresh water zones in Pa. would render that unlikely unless of a failure of the many strings of casing and cement but they wisely investigated anyway. Again, most also know, that the oft-heard claims of natural gas in fresh water wells and tap water has occurred for over a hundred years in the Apps.
Naturally-occurring shallow gas is also why many coal mines continue to have explosions if the air-handling system fails.
As to where the water goes post-fracturing, a large portion is returned to the surface during production, hence my note on the importance of produced water treatment and handling. This is where concern is very important....and if some wise heads get thinking, then it is where money could be made in designing a better filter and treatment process.
Some treatment water will stay in the formation.
One reason that gas is found in the shale, or sandstone at lesser depths, is the nature of impervious layers sandwiched with producing formations. If the difficulty of movement were not so difficult or natural fractures were everywhere, gas would never be trapped in concentrations sufficient for an economical look.
I do believe that the nature of the ND action is different than back East...the terrain and conditions alone can make the problems greater.
ND and many folks are making money but I do expect that it will be awhile before normality returns and if I hunted in NW ND then I, selfishly, would not be a happy camper.
The real issue to me in any of these Plays is in the amount of money to be made since that draws folks that may not have the experience to cross all the Ts...before, during or after a fracturing treatment.
This is where, most often, industrial accidents happen and accidents do and will continue to happen.
The state should concentrate the inspectors and inspections, fine to H and back for any violations and, most importantly, hire inspectors that know what they are looking at...good or bad.
ND, for example, is floating in money and spending it for these purposes is wise.
As to game birds and critters, any time WE humans flood an area it is never a good thing for the critters. Pheasants adapt better than many game birds, they have it much, much, much better but there is no doubt that any big industrial boom will negatively affect critter species.
Always has been so and always will be so.
Just before, it has often been what has built America...and may still be.
The Internet guarantees that one can find data to support just about any belief. One can find the pro-gas and anti-gas pretend documentaries.
Search and ye shall find...but the found information is often very flawed in all measures from the agenda of those putting the info out there.
If one has a propensity to hate Big Whatever then the false data will appeal...same as if you hate Big Government, wisely, then you can all too easily swallow the Glen Beck BS so prominent today.
Sift Internet info well....very well, and apply a bit of commonsense to avoid being caught and used and manipulated by either side in a discussion.
Just as an aside, in my area, game and non-game species have more to lose and have lost more from Deer hunting Leasing and ignorance toward the demands of a healthy forest than from the Marcellus or Utica activity.
Way more!
And people too, if one counts hunters...old and, especially, young.
