Taking a regional approach to fracking

An Encana Corp. fracking operation.
Photograph by: Chris Bolin Photography Inc

Ewart: Taking a regional approach to fracking

AER to launch pilot project of oversight

By Stephen Ewart, Calgary Herald February 22, 2014

...."If you're looking at water management you can't do it on a wellby-well basis, it has to be regional," said Cal Hill, Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) "the same with the surface infrastructure."

Fracks in Alberta will typically use less water than in northeast B.C. for example. A gas well in B.C.'s Horn River Basin could use 90,000 cubic metres of water but, according to the AER, a Duvernay well in Alberta would use closer to 30,000 cubic metres.

The oil and gas industry uses about 10 per cent of the water in Alberta but there are concerns over the quantity that could be used in fracking and the impact on water quality.

Haphazard well completions and poor operating practices by a few producers in Canada and the United States have prompted public concern over contamination of water supplies. Several jurisdictions new to oil and gas development have issued moratoriums on fracking.

In Alberta, landowner Jessica Ernst has had a long battle with gas producer Encana over problems with her water she blames on fracking....

Read more here: http://bit.ly/1kvZgPi

Increased fracking sparks fear of water use, pollution

Image, courtesy National Energy Board

Increased fracking sparks fear of water use, pollution

by Stephen Ewart, Calgary Herald, Friday, February 07, 2014

.... "It's increasing on a dramatic scale without any understanding of what the potential consequences will be," [Mason] said.

The licences potentially amount to more than 17 million cubic metres of fresh water that would be used in a province with longstanding drought concerns in its southern regions. It would equal almost half of the fresh water used for conventional oil and gas production in Western Canada in 2012.

Including the oilsands, overall fresh water consumption by the industry was 244 million cubic metres.

Oil and gas activity accounts for about 10 per cent of water used in Alberta - farming is allocated more than 40 per cent - but much of the water industry pumps deep underground is effectively lost to human use forever....

Read article here: http://bit.ly/1aSTZh5

Both sides now

Both sides now

Eric Dahlberg, Calgary Herald, Letter to the Editor
Published: Saturday, October 26, 2013

Re: "Fracking protesters air legitimate concerns," Letter, Oct. 21.

These days, as the author of a book which is an international petroleum industry standard on water, petroleum and their movement through underground rock materials, I am frequently asked (at cocktail parties or concerts) by relatives, friends and environmentally concerned colleagues: "In your opinion, is fracking good or bad?"

My constant and most sincere answer is "both," depending on the results of the individual job. It's bad if the formations concerned rupture in a way that leads dangerous liquids offthrough newly created fractures into clean water sources. It's good if the fractures lead hydrocarbons into the producing zones and well bores as intended, once liberated, to accumulate.

The results of fracking can be truly miraculous production-wise, when things go right as they generally do.

But since rocks as naturally created materials will often behave mysteriously and often unpredictably under stress, and crack in unanticipated patterns, fracking, I think, is good (for energy producers and worldwide consumers), bad (for users of water from contaminated aquifers or surface water courses), thus both, depending on the final outcome.

Eric Dahlberg, Calgary

Eric Dahlberg is president, ECD
Geological Specialists.

Fracking tensions should worry West

Photograph by: Andrew Vaughan, The Canadian Press

Fracking tensions should worry West

By Stephen Ewart, Calgary Herald October 19, 2013

A camouflaged police officer looking down the scope of a high-powered rifle has become the picture of stakeholder engagement in the fracking debate in Canada.

For the oil and gas industry - which puts so much emphasis on the need for a social licence to operate - the optics of snipers, burned-out police cruisers and the tense standoff between RCMP and First Nations protesters in New Brunswick this week could hardly be worse. The Mi'kmaq of Elsipogtog have staged demonstrations at the site north of Moncton this summer where U.S.-headquartered SWN Resources Canada is planning seismic testing to evaluate the potential of the shale gas resource in the Maritime province.

Read story here: http://bit.ly/1ia99wg

Environment Canada asks industry to come clean on hydraulic fracking

A Nexen contractor Kerne Kennedy makes his way through this maze of pipes at the site on Nexen's 18 well shale gas pad b-77-H, where fracking is underway. Photograph by: Handout/ Nexen, Postmedia News

Environment Canada asks industry to come clean on hydraulic fracking

By Mike De Souza, Ottawa Citizen/Calgary Herald/Postmedia News April 11, 2013

- “There is potential for water contamination from the use and disposal of drilling muds and fracturing fluids,” Paul Boothe, [the former deputy minister] , wrote in a memo to [Environment Minister Peter] Kent dated March 8, 2011. “There is also a risk of natural gas or saltwater from the formation leaking into surface water, water wells or water aquifers.”

Read more: http://bit.ly/17ujws0

“Fracking, the Future of Alberta’s Energy Economy?” - Mar 26

 

“Fracking, the Future of Alberta’s Energy Economy?”

Don't miss Telus Spark Science Café
 

Mar. 26, 2013 6:00pm at Ironwood Stage & Grill

 

This is a free event. 

 

For details and registration, visit this Spark Science events link.

Longview residents push for protection of water from oil and gas operations

Longview residents push for protection of water from oil and gas operations

By Colette Derworiz, Calgary Herald February 26, 2013

Some residents in Longview, a small community south of Calgary, are worried about the village’s water supply due to oil and gas operations in the area.

“We don’t feel like the water is being tested often enough,” said Donna Bieda, one of the residents who signed a petition asking the village or the oil company to put in a permanent monitoring system.

On Wednesday evening, the village’s council will hold a public forum to address any outstanding concerns…

…The concerns come due to hydraulic fracturing or fracking, which uses water to free gas and oil from underground rock. Some suggest the use of fracking could contaminate water.

Read story here

Critic boycotts Encana hearing, but crusade against fracking far from over

On Saturday, Jessica Ernst – ever mindful the case is playing in the legal system and the court of public opinion – responded to a request to arrange a photo at the Calgary court appearance by supplying a photo taken Friday of her at the doors of the Drumheller Court House.

Photograph by: Handout , Jessica Ernst

Critic boycotts Encana hearing, but crusade against fracking far from over 

Ernst, a scientist who worked as a consultant for the oil and gas industry,gained notoriety beginning in 2005 when she demonstrated how she could ignite thetap water in her home that was fine when she moved there in 1998.

By Stephen Ewart, Calgary Herald January 19, 2013 

Jessica Ernst’s long battle with natural gas giant Encana moved into a packed Calgary courtroom Friday, but with the lead player boycotting the proceeding because it was moved from central Alberta, there was little in the way of courtroom drama. 

 Ernst wants the case — her supporters bill it as a “landmark lawsuit” against fracking — to be heard in Drumheller, which is closer to her home in the village of Rosebud. 

“This is where I live. This is where my water is. This is where the coal bed methane wells were drilled. This is where my wells were contaminated,” Ernst said in a statement read to the court by lawyer Murray Klippenstein.“It is important to rural Albertans that disputes and harms that occur in their communities are judged in those communities.” 

Read more here

Promised Land and Fracking

Photo, courtesy Focus Features

It’s not every day that a Hollywood movie ends up being discussed and reviewed in the business and energy section of the newspaper. 

However, “Promised Land” did just that over the weekend; in not just one, but in at least three major Canadian newspapers that we are aware of.  

‘Pro-fracking ad at odds with film’ – by Mark Drajem, Calgary Herald/Bloomberg, Jan 05, 2013  

‘Anti-fracking film Promised Land gives Big Oil new audience’ – by Yadullah Hussain, Financial Post, Jan 04, 2013  

‘Energy industry slams Matt Damon fracking film as Hollywood fiction’ – by Kelly Cryderman, Carrie Tait, Calgary - The Globe and Mail, Jan 04, 2013 

This should not be all that surprising, given that the subject of this movie is hydraulic fracturing, also called fracking. 

In what may be a bit of a surprise is that fracking’s environmental opponents aren’t all that impressed with the movie either.

‘What Promised Land Doesn’t Mention' – by Ted Glick, EcoWatch, Jan 07, 2013 

Oil, gas development banned in B.C's Sacred Headwaters

The B.C. government is set to announce a ban on 

coal-bed methane gas drilling in the 

Sacred Headwaters area. 

(David Zalubowski/Associated Press)

Oil, gas development banned in B.C's Sacred Headwaters 

CBC News  Dec 18, 2012 

The B.C. government has confirmed a ban on oil and gas development in the Sacred Headwaters region of northwestern B.C. 

"As part of a tripartite agreement, Shell Canada is immediately withdrawing plans to explore for natural gas in the Klappan by relinquishing its tenures," the province said in a release. 

"In addition, the Province of British Columbia will not issue future petroleum and natural-gas tenure in the area." 

A four-year ban on oil and gas exploration in the area was set to expire Tuesday. 

Shannon McPhail, the executive director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, says announcement is a welcome relief. 

"There are no words to even describe how we're feeling about this right now," she told CBC News. "This has been a long road of 10 years of working on this and I think it has been a huge victory." 

The moratorium has prevented Shell Canada from doing exploratory drilling in the area, which is home to the headwaters of three salmon-bearing rivers: the Skeena, Nass and Stikine.  

LINK:(CBC News)

Related story, Globe & Mail: B.C.'s Sacred Headwaters to remain protected from drilling

Fracking poses risk to water systems, research suggests: U.S. study

Fracking involves pumping a mixture of water, sand and other chemicals deep underground at high pressure to fracture rocks and access the resources trapped inside.

Photograph by: Reuters , Financial Post

Fracking poses risk to water systems, research suggests: U.S. study

By Teresa Smith,

Postmedia News

Calgary Herald

August 7, 2012

A new scientific study of the risks associated with Hydraulic fracturing — or “fracking” — in the United States, found that current methods for wastewater disposal put drinking water at risk.

Fracking involves pumping a mixture of water, sand and other chemicals deep underground at high pressure to fracture rocks, allowing the trapped natural gas to flow and then be pumped to the surface.

While resource companies have used technology in Canada and the U.S. on a small scale for decades, it’s expected to ramp up significantly in B.C., Alberta, Quebec and New Brunswick, as deep shale gas reserves are tapped in an effort to exploit natural gas deposits and diversify Canada¹s energy resources.

But, in an American paper entitled “Water Pollution Risk Associated with Natural Gas Extraction from the Marcellus Shale,” the authors found that the process is likely to contaminate nearby water systems. The Marcellus Shale, the largest in the U.S., covers approximately 124,000 km from New York to West Virginia.

The paper, which appears in the August 2012 issue of the international journal Risk Analysis, says “even in a best case scenario, an individual well would potentially release at least 200 m3 of contaminated fluids.” Doctoral student Daniel Rozell and Dr. Sheldon Reaven, a professor in the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, partnered on the work.

In order to identify where regulators should focus their efforts, the study model identified five ways fracking could contaminate water supplies: transportation spills, well casing leaks, leaks through fractured rock, drilling site discharge, and wastewater disposal.

Read more here

Quebec bans any fracking pending studies

A committee named by Quebec Environment Minister Pierre Arcand to determine whether shale gas can be extracted while respecting the environment released plans Tuesday for further study and recommended the minister not authorize hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, even for research purposes during an ongoing halt in development.

Photograph by: Allen McInnis , Gazette file photo

Quebec bans any fracking pending studies

By Rebecca Penty,

Calgary Herald

April 5, 2012

CALGARY - The province of Quebec has moved from a de facto ban on shale gas development to a "complete and total moratorium," lamented Calgary oilpatch executive Michael Binnion on Tuesday, following news that a review on hydraulic fracturing won't include any demonstrations in the province.

A committee named by Quebec Environment Minister Pierre Arcand to determine whether shale gas can be extracted while respecting the environment released plans Tuesday for further study and recommended the minister not authorize hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, even for research purposes during an ongoing halt in development.

Read more here

New York judge upholds fracking ban in towns

Photo: Dan Wiessner, Reuters

New York judge upholds fracking ban in towns

By Dan Wiessner,

Reuters, Albany New York

Calgary Herald

February 25, 2012

A New York state judge on Friday upheld an upstate community's ban on gas drilling, marking the second victory this week for opponents of the drilling method known as fracking.

The authority vested in towns and cities in New York to regulate use of their land extends to prohibitions on drilling, acting state Supreme Court Justice Donald Cerio ruled on Friday, dismissing arguments by a landowner who had already sold leases on almost 160 hectares.

"Municipalities are not preempted . . . from enacting local zoning ordinances which may prohibit oil, gas and solution drilling or mining," Cerio wrote. "The state maintains control over the 'how' of (drilling) procedures while the municipalities maintain control over the 'where.' "

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Fracking fluid rules expected by year's end

Hydraulic fracturing has created a boom in domestic supplies of natural gas liquids,

including propane. But environmentalists say the extraction method has

contaminated drinking water sources. (image: inhabitat.com)

Fracking fluid rules expected by year's end

By Rebecca Penty,

Calgary Herald

February 23, 2012

Alberta's energy regulator expects to have rules in place by the end of the year that would make companies publicly disclose ingredients in hydraulic fracturing fluids.

The Energy Resources Conservation Board intends to make it easy to search for any provincial well on a single website and find the fluids a company has pumped underground to force oil and gas to flow.

The move came out of a review of unconventional oil and gas rules that started in 2010 and a commitment to align some regulations with Saskatchewan and British Columbia, said Cal Hill, executive manager of regulatory development for the board.

"B.C. has moved to disclosure and we're working to follow," Hill said at a media briefing on Wednesday.

The regulator hasn't yet decided whether it will join the fracfocus.ca website that went live in B.C. last month and said it is considering making disclosure mandatory only on new wells.

Alberta has been behind other jurisdictions on forcing disclosure, a requirement that started in the United States after widespread concerns from environmental groups and landowners about the risks of water contamination and pollution they linked to rampant development of gas in tight shale formations.

Read more: