PRI Researchers Explain Shale Science

When asked about whether NY will allow high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing (aka: fracking) Governor Cuomo is fond of saying “Let the science decide”. But the truth is, science can’t “decide”. The best science can do is present the facts, such as they are known. Policy-makers are the ones who “decide”.

And now there’s a new book about the science of the shale beneath our feet – a book that could help our local and state legislators and regulators put more science into their decisions. The Science Beneath the Surface: A very short guide to the Marcellus shale was recently published by the Paleontological Research Institute. PRI has a long history of addressing contentious issues, such as evolution and climate change. Now add shale to that list.

This book grew out of a project to create fact sheets to inform residents about various aspects of shale drilling. The authors – Don Duggan-Haas, Robert Ross, and Warren Allmon – added new information and a lot more depth to make the book. Unlike the earlier projects on evolution and climate change, where there is little scientific controversy about the major points, there are still significant gaps in the basic knowledge about Marcellus shale - and significant disagreements about interpreting the data.

Shale science is grounded in the rock, but research on gas extraction goes beyond geology. It includes environmental studies, land use, agriculture, water, air, human health, engineering… and each of those could demand an entire volume of its own. But Duggan-Haas, Ross and Allmon wrestled the information into one volume that explains the basic science of shale, drilling, water, risk and climate change in language that the average reader can understand – and does it without advocating for or against any particular action.

The authors describe the geology and natural fracturing of the formation, discuss Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) and why these are important to soils, plants, animals and people. They also address the volatile organic chemicals released during gas extraction and production.

Want to know how to drill a well? Read chapter three. Tired of hearing industry folk claim that fracking has been used for at least 50 years? It hasn’t, say the authors, and they explain why.

They discuss human-induced seismicity and earthquake “swarms” and devote an entire chapter to water. Ross and his colleagues also include a chapter on life cycle analyses of gas wells and examine something called the PFCI: potential future climate impact. Even if it turns out that gas is better than coal, as far as greenhouse gases go, the fact is that burning gas still contributes greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. So if we simply switch to burning more gas long-term… “We’ll have a climate disaster,” says Ross. “The fundamental challenge is to find ways to use less energy.”  

As a very short guide, The Science Beneath the Surface does a pretty good job. There are a couple places where information seems incomplete or lacking, for example well casings.
While the authors note that improper casings and casing failures have contributed to contamination of groundwater, they don’t say is how often this happens (6- 7 percent of the time in Marcellus wells drilled in Pennsylvania with a 60% failure rate over 20 years). And while they mention erosion regulations (SWPPP) they don’t say anything about federal exemptions from the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Despite the small glitches, this book provides a thorough introduction to the science of shale and should be in the hands of every elected official in the state - especially if they want to make “science-based” decisions. Read my full review and comments from the authors at Tompkins Weekly.

Stories from Beneath the Shale

If you want to understand shale gas drilling, you have to start with the rock, says Tom Wilber. He should know; he covered gas drilling in NY and PA for the Press & Sun Bulletin since before the Millennium Pipeline, and now has a book out on the topic: Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale.  

“Everything central to shale gas production – and the controversy surrounding it – involves understanding rock fractures,” he writes. But the shale isn’t the only thing being fractured in the rush to extract gas. Wilber also writes about the drilling debate fractures communities overlying the Marcellus.

Wilber’s book is steeped in a sense of place. He describes the roads and landscape of Dimock, the trailers and homesteads and contemporary homes tucked along back roads, the stone walls and swing sets of Dimock. He introduces the Carters, the Sautners, and other families brought together unexpectedly by the shale gas rush. He grounds us in history, from the first hand-excavated gas well in Fredonia NY (1825) to the intensely industrialized horizontal hydraulically fractured Marcellus wells of the new millennium.

Under the Surface examines the geology of shale, the technology of drilling, the promise of prosperity. Wilber’s evenhanded treatment gives voice to all involved: landowners and farmers hoping to capitalize on royalty income, regulators and politicians struggling with increasingly divisive issues, and residents-turned-activists trying to protect their water and air from contamination. Even when he is talking facts, complete with endnotes and citations, he maintains his role as a storyteller... one bent on uncovering the “truth”.

His book might be finished, but Wilber isn’t; he continues to follow the issue, writing about it on his blog. “Things are happening on a daily basis,” he says, noting home rule as one of the developing issues.

He’s been keeping tabs on the recent tests of Dimock water wells conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Though the EPA reports that they have found nothing of concern, test data show “traces of sodium, methane, arsenic, chromium, and lithium and other elements at or near action levels,” he says. Those are “red flags” – they indicate a need for more analysis. As for the people in Dimock, the ones who are complaining about contaminated drinking water …  “they are victims,” says Wilber. “They certainly didn’t make this stuff up.”

Books from GasLand - The End of Country

The End of Country

By Seamus McGraw

Random House, 2011

Some folks drill into the shale for gas, others for stories. Seamus McGraw, a Dimock lad, recently published a book about how drilling has impacted his neck of the woods. But The End of Country is about more than drilling. McGraw mixes memoir and documentary to reveal the character of those most impacted by drilling: Victoria Switzer, a retired school teacher who moved to Dimock to build her dream home; Ken Ely who quarries bluestone from his farm just uphill of Switzer; Rosemarie Greenwood, an aging dairy farmer who apologized for not baking muffins because her oven stopped working years ago.

When Ely tells him that the land is resilient, McGraw understands that he’s referring to past years of timbering, dairy farming, coal mining and, now, gas drilling. “Sure, you could kill it if you took too much,” Ely says. People need to understand that the land doesn’t owe them a fortune, just a living.

So why did people sign gas leases? For Rosemarie it was a way to keep the cows fed and the grain bills paid for one more year. For Ken it was another way to work his land. For Victoria it was an ambivalent faith that drilling might provide energy security to the region and the nation. The leases are less about money than about hope for a better future, one in which young men and women are not sent off to war to secure access to foreign oil fields.

A lot of the problems with drilling and gas distribution have mechanical solutions, McGraw says. Gas lost through leaky valves and pipes, referred to as “fugitive emissions” represents a loss of money for the energy corporations. “They could fix the problem but they don’t because they are too concerned about their production rates,” he says. What people need to understand is that public policy that forces the companies to address these issues not only protects the environment but is also in the best interest of the companies.

One question McGraw has for the gas companies is why they continue to power their industrial extraction efforts with expensive diesel. “Here we are sitting on top of the second – or third – largest reservoir of natural gas in the world,” he said, “yet how are they running the rigs? Diesel!” Drillers could be using gas to power everything from drilling rigs to their fleets to the generators that power the fracking operations.

Sure, Marcellus drilling has changed the countryside, McGraw says. “We can compare what it is now to what it was like 15 years ago, but the more important question is where are we going to be 5 or 10 years from now?”

Regardless of your thoughts on drilling or leasing, The End of Country makes for compelling reading