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The EPA responded with a study of potential and actual impacts of hydraulic fracturing of coalbed methane wells on drinking water, published in 2004. Section 7.4 of the report "concluded that the injection of hydraulic fracturing fluids into coalbed methane wells poses little or no threat to USDWs and does not justify additional study at this ...
[10] [11] Produced water, the water that returns to the surface after fracking, is managed by underground injection, municipal and commercial wastewater treatment, and reuse in future wells. [12] There is potential for methane to leak into ground water and the air, though escape of methane is a bigger problem in older wells than in those built ...
Environmental impact of fracking in the United States has been an issue of public concern, and includes the contamination of ground and surface water, methane emissions, [1] air pollution, migration of gases and fracking chemicals and radionuclides to the surface, the potential mishandling of solid waste, drill cuttings, increased seismicity and associated effects on human and ecosystem health.
The reliance on untreated well water in the rural regions of the Marcellus leaves communities at a strong disadvantage if aquifer contamination would occur. [83] It has been found that methane concentrations in well water within one kilometer from an active gas well were 17 times higher than in those outside of active gas production area. [83]
Environmental Protection Agency illustration of the water cycle of hydraulic fracturing. Fracking in the United States began in 1949. [1] According to the Department of Energy (DOE), by 2013 at least two million oil and gas wells in the US had been hydraulically fractured, and that of new wells being drilled, up to 95% are hydraulically fractured.
Based on the methane leakage rate of the reported 1493 wells that are currently leaking in British Columbia, a total leakage rate of 7070 m 3 daily (2.5 million m 3 yearly) is estimated, although this number may be underestimated as demonstrated by the fieldwork done by the David Suzuki Foundation. [1]
Hydraulic fracturing [a] is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of formations in bedrock by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "fracking fluid" (primarily water, containing sand or other proppants suspended with the aid of thickening agents) into a wellbore to create cracks in the deep rock formations through which natural gas, petroleum ...
Methane may be extracted by drilling wells into the coal seam. The goal is to decrease the water pressure by pumping water from the well. The decrease in pressure allows methane to desorb from the coal and flow as a gas up the well to the surface. Methane is then compressed and piped to market.