Whenever the subject of unconventional gas mining
is discussed, underground water contamination is invariably the foremost
concern. This contamination can result from leaked toxic drilling and fracking
fluids, or through cross contamination of water at different levels facilitated
by the fractured rock strata, or through fugitive methane leaks that can also
pollute underground water.
There are also concerns raised by landowners who
are reliant on bore water, reporting that the process of pumping out the
groundwater, to allow the free flow of gas, is lowering the water table to a
point where they are running out of water.
What isn't so commonly understood, is the amount of
water that is actually trucked in for hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a
process the industry likes to claim is not especially water intensive. However,
recent reports from the USA have highlighted the fact that hundreds of gas
wells have required vast amounts of water. The Sabine Oil and Gas company owns
the thirstiest well, situated in Harrison County, Texas, followed closely by
Encana Oil and Gas' Federal 36 Well in Colorado, with both using well over 100
million litres each.
According to the researchers, some two-thirds of
these water-hogging wells are located in dry states like Texas, and that water
is ultimately pumped back out as toxic “produced water” requiring treatment
before it can be reused. Unfortunately, some Californian operators didn't want
to incur the significant expense of treatment, and simply pumped the toxic mix
back underground into the state's drinking water source.
That is in America, and Australian companies are
quick to claim it couldn't happen in Australia. However, in Queensland, ground
water depletion and contamination is a real issue, with some landowners finding
their bores now producing more methane than water.
Amazingly, the Energy Resource Information Centre,
an industry mouthpiece, is claiming (The Daily Examiner November 20, 2014) that by treating the produced
water and making it available for reuse, that Queensland farmers are benefiting
from “new water availability”.
Make no mistake, in this the world's driest
continent, water protection is of paramount importance, and fracking will put
that precious resource at unacceptable risk.
- John Edwards
This post was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on December 8, 2014.
