A Quantitative Analysis of the Safety of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids

 Robert E. Davis 

July 2009

About the Author - Robert E. Davis is an active member of The Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes and creator of this website.

He retired from P&G in 1993 as Research Manager for New Products Worldwide. He was involved in product  safety and environmental issues throughout his career at P&G. He was P&G’s Market Research Group Supervisor for Packaged Soaps and Detergents in the late 1960’s and 1970’s during the controversies over the impact of phosphates and NTA on water quality.

After retiring from P&G, he founded Product Development Systems, Inc. and later became a Vice President and Officer of Market Facts, Inc. He is on the Editorial Board of The Joutnal of Product Innovation Management. Articles by him have appeared in journals in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Marcellus gas development has begun in the northern Appalachian Basin, with significant lease holdings throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia, southern New York, western Maryland, and eastern Ohio. The combined investment by gas drilling companies in Marcellus shale is billions of dollars and encompasses millions of acres.

Hazardous products are added to the fluids used to hydraulically fracture Marcellus shale using horizontal drilling techniques. Partly because of concerns related to water pollution and wastewater disposal in other states¹, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) has placed restrictions on drilling using hydraulic fracturing in Marcellus shale pending completion of a supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS). The supplemental will assess issues unique to horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing of the Marcellus and other low permeability reservoirs². Gas drilling companies say they use such tiny amounts of chemicals in fracturing gas wells - of the million or so gallons of liquid pumped into a well, only .5 percent or so are chemicals - that they are diluted beyond harmful levels. But on some drilling sites, the seemingly tiny percentage of .5 percent translates to more than 5,000 gallons of chemicals concentrated in a relatively small area.

Along with the introduced chemicals, fracturing water is in close contact with the rock during the course of the drilling, and when recovered may contain a variety of formation materials, including brines, heavy metals, radioactive contaminants, and organic compounds that often significantly exceed drinking water standards, according to the United States Geological Survey³.

In response to a Freedom of Information Law request in June 2009⁴, the Yates Progressives received from the NYDEC a list of 48 toxic products added to fracturing water in Yates and nearby counties. The list took the form of actual Material Safety Data (MSD) sheets submitted by drillers to the NYDEC. Extensive data is presented for each product about its chemical composition.

In the MSD sheets, the products are rated on health, flammability and other factors using the Hazardous Materials Information System (HMIS: 1=low hazard, 2=moderate hazard, 3=high hazard, 4=extreme hazard). Twenty-three of the 48 products are highly hazardous (rated a "3" or higher on the HMIS scale on one or more factors). Some of them according to the MSD sheets:

• Will cause eye burns and permanent tissue damage. Ingestion may be fatal.

• May be absorbed through skin in harmful amounts. Inhalation of high levels of vapors my affect central nervous system or cause unconsciousness. Ingestion may be harmful. Chronic overexposure can adversely affect liver, eyes, lungs, brain and nervous system. Is a probable human carcinogen.

• May cause permanent eye damage or blindness. Skin contact may cause tissue damage and cause illness. Inhalation may cause illness. Ingestion causes severe pain, burns, swelling, may cause illness. Is a probable human carcinogen. Toxic to aquatic organisms.

• May be absorbed through skin in toxic amounts. Inhalation may cause collapse, unconsciousness, even death. Ingestion may cause blindness, mental confusion, and stupor. Chronic overexposure may damage liver, kidneys, eyes, lungs and central nervous system. May cause malformations of an embryo or fetus.

• May cause central nervous system depression, unconsciousness. May be absorbed through the skin. May cause severe eye ailments. Overexposure may affect liver and kidneys.

These highly hazardous products used to fracture Marcellus shale are clearly a potential danger to water resources in New York State:

1. Contamination of the soil around a gas well can occur from accidental spills and leakage from the borehole itself, resulting in the toxic fluids seeping into water aquifers. Environmental cleanup can be a very difficult task. It's often uncertain as to whether the contamination is completely eliminated.
2. Fluids recovered from the well, including the hazardous products and chemicals used for the fracturing and any produced formation brines, must be treated and disposed of safely. However, the effectiveness of standard wastewater treatments on these fluids is not well understood. In particular, salts and other dissolved solids in brines are not usually removed successfully by wastewater treatment, and reports of high salinity in some Appalachian rivers have been linked to the disposal of Marcellus Shale brines.

A disposal process used in Texas places the wastewater into an open tank or pond to evaporate. The solids that remain behind are then disposed of as dry waste. Although this may be an effective technique in the deserts of the American west, its usefulness in the humid climate of the Appalachians is questionable.

Recommendations

New York should prohibit the use of highly hazardous substances in gas well drilling.

Before any drilling is allowed, treatment facilities dedicated to the disposal of fracturing fluids should be in place in New York State.

Drilling in New York Marcellus shale should be incrementally permitted, starting with a small number of wells and increasing thereafter only after safety is proven. The necessary research, testing, and academic studies have not been conducted to establish that hydraulic fracturing is safe to the inhabitants of New York State, and to the rivers, lakes, and aquifers of the state.

Deep well drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus shale is in our economic interest. But, it must occur without harming the region's environmental and water resources. In particular, New York must ensure that people can count on clean, safe drinking water now and for generations to come.

References