Voicing the silence (4/5)

By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe and Lowell Brown
Denton Record-Chronicle
December 31, 2008

EDITOR’S NOTE: Behind the Shale is a five-part series exploring urban gas drilling and one Argyle-area neighborhood’s struggle against it.

Observations, studies show subtle, long-term effects of gas drilling

For a while, Kim Couch thought her children hadn’t noticed the effect of the natural gas drilling in their neighborhood along Britt Drive.

“You think they are just in their own little world, running around and carefree,” Couch said.

Her view changed when television news cameras descended on their Argyle-area neighborhood after the first well was drilled three years ago. Couch realized that she was the one running from home to car, busy with her life and unaware of the profound changes that had come to their neighborhood. Her 10-year-old daughter, Kristen, surprised her when she answered a question about what had changed the most.

“It’s like it scared all the birds away,” Kristen said. “I can’t hear the birds sing anymore.”

Forty-six years ago, biologist Rachel Carson opened her monumental book Silent Spring with the fable of a small town ravaged by the indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides. Historians credit the best-seller with inspiring both the modern environmental movement and President John F. Kennedy, who, in response, convened a scientific commission that would become the Environmental Protection Agency.

Carson cautioned readers that her fable was not true. No single community had suffered such an aggregate of losses. However, each loss — stream banks lined with dead fish, plagues of insects bursting forth and then dying, skeletal trees and their understory silent of birdsong — had occurred somewhere in the world.

Since 2005, some residents of Britt Drive have been fighting Whitespot, a proposed gas well planned for less than 250 feet from the back door of one home on their street.

For neighbors Jennifer Cole and Jana DeGrand, the cause became a full-time job. They check in with each other almost daily, keeping track of not only developments in their own neighborhood but also developments of the urban drilling paradigm.

Each new revelation of how the oil and gas industry is regulated, as well as the short-term and long-term impacts of drilling, convinced the two women that, despite pledges by the industry to be “good neighbors,” a high-pressure gas well, condensate tanks and pipelines don’t make good neighbors.

Since Carson’s book was published in 1962, a host of federal statutes have been passed to protect the public health by ensuring clean air and water, including the Clean Air Act of 1963; the Clean Water Act of 1972; the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974; the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976; the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, known as “Superfund”; and the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act of 1986, known as the Toxics Release Inventory.

Industry lobbyists made sure oil and gas exploration and production were exempted from key provisions in all of them (I).

And prior to the Barnett Shale boom, the industry also sought and received exemptions for hydraulic fracturing — the process that pumps sand, water and chemicals to crack layers of rock, releasing the gas (II).

The oil and gas industry, which generated a total production value of $65 billion in Texas for 2007, is considered among the state’s top moneymakers, pumping funds into the economy and creating an estimated 226,000 jobs, according to the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers.

Oil and gas exploration and employment comprises about 10 percent to 12 percent of the state’s economy and is estimated to account for more than 20 percent of all state taxes.

The estimated number of drilling permits for oil and gas wells issued statewide for the year as of October 2008 is estimated at 21,330, up 26.7 percent from the same time last year.

But with the economy slowing, many drillers are idling their drilling rigs.

A Baker Hughes report this month showed 646 active rigs in Texas last week. That was down 15 from just the week before.

With the economic outlook for 2009 indicating a continued downturn nationwide, the oil and gas industry could continue to see a mixed forecast with the question of consumer demand.

The up-and-down projections could cause a slowdown — a slowdown that might provide additional time for a closer review of regulations surrounding the urban drilling paradigm.

Barnett Shale producers point to oversight by the Texas Railroad Commission as sufficient (III). Even their permit fees pay, in part, to a shared cleanup fund for operations that go belly-up.

But a crescendo of criticism — including last year’s finding by the State Auditor’s Office that the Texas Railroad Commission failed to do basic, routine inspections — suggests some troubles may be a repetitious riff of history (IV).

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Texas Legislature authorized the Texas Railroad Commission to regulate oil and gas development.

The move came with the erratic development of the oil fields around Burkburnett in the 1910s and 1920s, which had triggered colossal waste of the oil and huge economic losses.

It took years for the agency to develop a working relationship with the industry, but its weak regulatory muscles barely survived the East Texas oil boom of the 1930s.

At one point, Gov. Ross Sterling sent in the National Guard to restore order (V).

While the latest paradigm shift covers a vast, urban drilling landscape, the railroad commissioners continue to view their public mission as one of conservation — not of ecology, but of economy for the state’s oil and gas reserves.

In December 2007, an appeals court judge ruled that the railroad commission did not consider the public interest when it permitted an injection well in a Wise County neighborhood.

Since the court’s decision, the railroad commission has not written any new rules or policies to address the public interest. Instead, the railroad commission, with industry backing, petitioned the Texas Supreme Court to consider the case, which remains pending.

Before the boom, the railroad commission permitted just 75 new gas wells in 1999. More than 14,800 Barnett Shale wells have been permitted since then. In September, the commissioners, noting that the agency was buckling under the workload, redirected about $750,000 of the cleanup money to hire more people.

The money functions like a mini “Superfund,” cleaning up and plugging abandoned oil and gas wells.

Because of the commission’s weak regulatory history, previously unmapped wells are still being discovered, sometimes plugged with everything from dirt and rocks to old oil field equipment.

Those wells become underground pathways for pollution when operators are working nearby, either drilling for more oil and gas or disposing of their production waste. The migrating saltwater and hydrocarbons cause a host of environmental problems, complicating the operation of active wells around them and contaminating drinking water supplies (VI).

Perhaps the biggest potential threat of that migration comes from the underground disposal of production waste.

The Texas Railroad Commission has the largest inventory of injection wells in the nation (VII). And nearly 60 percent of the state still relies on groundwater sources for drinking water (VIII). The same process that makes groundwater safe to drink — its slow movement through rocks and sand — also makes it nearly impossible to clean once it’s contaminated (IX).

Local EPA scientists Philip Dellinger and Ray Leissner watch over the railroad commission’s regulation of more than 50,700 injection wells. Their evaluation notes each year a small but persistent level of non-compliance by some operators, as well as some catastrophic failures.

Wise County residents predicted one such failure of a proposed injection well near Chico when protesting its permit. The railroad commission allowed Hydro-FX to inject until Devon Energy reported problems at a nearby production well in early 2007. That failure followed a string of shallow injection well failures in Wise County, often reported to the agency by others.

The railroad commission has 83 inspectors, one for every 3,259 of the 270,526 active wells in the state. Although the railroad commission closed the well until Hydro-FX fixed the problem, the failure prompted an intervention by the EPA scientists concerned about drinking water supplies in Wise County (X).

Railroad commission inspectors recently closed injection wells in Parker (XI) and Wise (XII) counties after nearby residents reported failures.

In December 2007, they closed a well in Greenwood after a resident filed a complaint just weeks after another inspector gave the site a passing grade.

Railroad commission spokeswoman Ramona Nye said that operators sometimes have problems that come up after the inspection. However, after this incident, the local office decided to assign one inspector just to disposal wells, and this has increased compliance, Nye said.

Dellinger and Leissner have pressed the railroad commission to stop permitting shallow injection wells for Barnett Shale wastes, insisting that the program would be safer if drilling waste is disposed at least 8,000 feet below the surface.

“We prefer they dispose into the Ellenburger Formation,” Dellinger said. The Ellenburger, a porous limestone layer saturated with salty water, lies below the shale, locked in by the impermeable Viola Formation.

But the federal agency has not launched a full-court press for another rule change, one that would widen the area of review.

Currently, operators can calculate for quantities and pressure based on quarter-mile radius, even though a group of EPA scientists found that injected waste — once it escapes its confinement zone — has traveled up to a mile away (XIII).

U.S. public health officials have depended on the broad rules of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act to protect human health for many years, according to Dr. Roxana Witter of the Colorado School of Public Health. But the shift to urban drilling means the rules of the game have changed.

Witter and her colleagues recently published a research study and a white paper on the human health effects of oil and gas development.

Their study, which was a review of all relevant medical studies and funded by the National Resources Defense Council, found that people living in active drilling fields could be at risk for a host of adverse health effects, from reproductive and neurological problems to cancer as well as psycho-social ills.

Accustomed to dealing with human health in relation to mining in other countries, the World Health Organization advocates that regulators use health impact assessments to address risk (XIV).

This month, Colorado adopted new rules requiring the industry to consider risks to human health and wildlife before drilling in sensitive areas.

While more research is needed to assess those risks, Witter said volatile organic compounds churned into the atmosphere by the industry present risks that are well-known.

The Powder River Basin in Wyoming has a smog problem, not because of traffic, but because of intensive natural gas mining.

A new Southern Methodist University study found gas drilling and production in the Barnett Shale to be a significant source of air pollution, much greater than generated at area airports and by motor vehicles.

By 2009, residents can expect 620 tons of smog-forming compounds each day from the Barnett Shale, including 33 tons per day of toxic compounds like benzene and formaldehyde and 33,000 equivalent tons of greenhouse gases — all produced in order to mine and process clean-burning natural gas (XV).

As it bounced back from near extinction, the American bald eagle did not have nearly the public relations problem as some of Earth’s creatures have had in the political arena. Skeptics trot out the spotted owl, or the blind salamander, or the banana slug, for example, to get an easy laugh at environmentalists’ expense.

The soil, teeming with tiny life-forms, may be the least understood of Earth’s life-sustaining gifts. The soil nourishes and nurtures, particularly when fed with decaying organic matter.

But decaying inorganic materials are another matter. Radium-226 and radium-228 are the most likely radioactive daughters to stow away with natural gas and its condensate as it comes up the hole. And once allowed to contaminate the soil, they begin their deadly decay (XVI).

Jennifer Cole’s husband, Gene, with his crisp shirts, pressed pants and hair meticulously gelled and combed, fussed about the dirt in his pool from the gas pad behind his home strongly enough that the drilling company paid someone to come clean it out for him and his family.

But once the gas well is in, Gene Cole says he knows, deep down, that dirt settling at the bottom of his pool is the least of his problems.

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com.

FOR REFERENCE

I. “Exemption of Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Wastes from Federal Hazardous Waste Regulations,” a publication of the Environmental Protection Agency; and “Oil and Gas at Your Door? A Landowner’s Guide to Oil and Gas Development,” 2nd edition. Durango, Colo.: Oil and Gas Accountability Project, 2004.

II. “Evaluation of Impacts to Underground Sources June 2004 of Drinking Water by Hydraulic Fracturing of Coalbed Methane Reservoirs,” June 2004, EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) 816-R-04-003, www.epa.gov/OGWDW/uic/wells_coalbedmethanestudy.html.

III. Carrillo, Victor. “Riding the Shale Road,” in The Barnett Shale: The Official Magazine of Thriving on the Shale, published by Chesapeake Energy, summer 2008.

IV. Keel, John. “Inspection and Enforcement Activities in the Field Operations Section of the Railroad Commission,”Austin: State Auditor’s Office, August 2007.

V. Childs, William. “The Texas Railroad Commission: Understanding Regulation in America to the Mid-Twentieth Century,” College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2005.

VI. “Drinking Water: Safeguards are not preventing contamination from injected oil and gas wastes,” General Accounting Office Report, July 1989.

VII. FY 2007 EPA Region 6 End-of-Year Evaluation of the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program, Sept. 1, 2006–August 31, 2007.

VIII. Texas Water Development Board, Groundwater Resources Division, www.twdb.state.tx.us/GwRD/pages/gwrdindex.html.

IX. Ibid., “Drinking Water,” July 1989.

X. Ibid., FY 2007 EPA Region 6 End-of-Year Evaluation.

XI. Lee, Mike. “Saltwater disposal well shut down for spills, leaks,” in Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Oct. 31, 2008.

XII. Evans, Brandon. “Injection Well Shut Down,” in the Wise County Messenger, March 13, 2007.

XIII. “Does a fixed radius area of review meet the statutory mandate and regulatory requirements of being protective of USDWs (underground drinking water)?” Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10, Nov. 5, 2004.

XIV. Witter, Roxana, et al. “Potential Exposure-Related Human Health Effects of Oil and Gas Development: A White Paper.” Denver: Colorado School of Public Health, 2008; Witter, Roxana, et al. “Potential Exposure-Related Human Health Effects of Oil and Gas Development: A Literature Review (2003-2008).” Denver: Colorado School of Public Health, 2008

XV. Armendariz, Al. “Emissions from Natural Gas Production in the Barnett Shale Area and Opportunities for Cost-Effective Improvements: a peer-reviewed report.” Austin: The Environmental Defense Fund, 2008.

XVI. Otton, James K. et al. Effects of produced waters at oilfield production sites on the Osage Indian Reservation, northeastern Oklahoma, U.S. Geological Survey, open file report 97-28.

Chapter 1: Neighbors along Britt Drive are approached by land men eager to drill in the Barnett Shale. Some are wary of the impact on their quality of life and question whether the amount of money offered is worth it.

Chapter 2: Urban drilling means these rough-and-tumble workplaces are closer to homes than ever. But its boom-or-bust nature creates a psychosocial environment for the Britt Drive neighborhood that fosters distrust of both sides.

Chapter 3: Cities are trying to preserve their authority to make rules for health, safety and welfare, but the industry is pushing back. Britt Drive neighbors watch one such battle unfold in their backyard.

Chapter 4: A doctrine of exemption allows the industry to develop oil and gas resources without having to study the environmental or health impacts of their work. Britt Drive neighbors worry about how drilling would affect their environment.

Chapter 5: Industry insiders sometimes marginalize gas drilling opponents, but the conversation about where to draw the line in urban drilling persists. The Britt Drive neighbors’ quest to keep drillers away grows increasingly desperate.