Chesapeake talking with Fort Worth about piping drilling waste to Gateway Park for recycling
By Mike Lee
Star-Telegram
FORT WORTH — Chesapeake Energy is negotiating with the city to begin piping wastewater from natural gas wells to an injection well near Gateway Park as part of a pilot recycling program.
Piping HIGHLY CORROSIVE drilling waste is not a good idea. Corrosive means it can eat through the drilling pipe and concrete in no time.
The proposal calls for salt water to be piped to the site and then boiled using excess heat from nearby compressor stations. Unlike other recycling programs, the water would be boiled into the atmosphere, rather than condensed and reused, said Steve Turk, Chesapeake’s district manager for the Barnett Shale.
“The water would be boiled into the atmosphere” along with cancer causing volatile hydrocarbons.
Why won’t Chesapeake take David Burnett’s suggestion on recycling the drilling waste so it can be reused for agricultural purposes and for drilling?
Conversion of Oil Field Produced Brine to Fresh Water
According to David Burnett, industry expert, Membrane Desalination Becoming the Technology of Choice. (2006 slide show)
According to my correspondence with Burnett, the following are the advantages and disadvantages of Chesapeake’s chosen method.
Advantages of technology: the ability to concentrate a larger amount of brine.
Disadvantages: cost of fuel, emissions, likely cost of pre-treatment, and disposal of solid waste (may or may not be classified as hazardous).
It seems Chesapeake’s main concern is getting rid of a large volume of water NOT the best and safest method of handling Drilling Waste.
Why is the least populated state in the U.S. having ozone alerts?
Fort Worth should heed the warning of lessons learned:
Now, in hindsight, we can look back on the strategy of increasing domestic fossil fuel production as a failure for Wyoming and the United States. It didn’t wean us from foreign oil, there is certainly no evidence that it increased our security, and it certainly didn’t result in affordable prices for consumers. The only success this policy can claim is inflating the profits of the oil and gas corporations to record levels.
Casper Star-Tribune Online – Letters, Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Drilling our way to higher gas prices
Carmi McLean of Laramie, the public outreach director of the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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seems they will try to slip one by us on a daily basis.
Last night at the forum about drilling water and recycling hosted by League of Women Voters, the Chesapeake Rep was asked why they use the evaporation method instead of the recycling that Devon Energy uses with Fountain Quail Recycling.
His answer, “That’s a good question.”
Do you think it was a PR person and not an industry expert?
I believe his name is Steve Turk, and my understanding is he is a “facilities or production” manager. Or something like that…. not officially in PR.