An Ohio State University led study has pinpointed the likely source of most natural gas contamination in drinking-water wells associated with hydraulic fracturing is the walls of the gas well and their well casing seal to the ground.

It’s not the source many people may have feared and should, if the press can get its facts – truth – and integrity act together, the news should enable the natural gas industry, the state regulators and well engineers an opportunity to solve the public’s anti fracking issue with real results for much improved water well protection.

The problem should be fixable with improved construction standards for cement well linings and metal well casings at hydraulic fracturing sites.

The team was led by a researcher at The Ohio State University and composed of researchers at Duke, Stanford, Dartmouth, and the University of Rochester. The team devised a new method of geochemical forensics to trace how methane migrates under the earth. The study identified eight clusters of contaminated drinking-water wells in Pennsylvania and Texas.

Natural Gas Migration by Well Casing to Aquifer Graphic.  As researchers study hydraulic fracturing, a team led by Thomas Darrah at The Ohio State University has identified a key source of groundwater contamination (labeled 5, center right) caused by faulty well casings. Image  Credit: Courtesy of Thomas Darrah,  Ohio State University.  Click image for the largest view.

Natural Gas Migration by Well Casing to Aquifer Graphic. As researchers study hydraulic fracturing, a team led by Thomas Darrah at Ohio State University has identified a key source of groundwater contamination (labeled 5, center right) caused by faulty well casings. Image Credit: Courtesy of Thomas Darrah, Ohio State University. Click image for the largest view.

Most important among their findings, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is that neither horizontal drilling nor hydraulic fracturing of shale deposits seems to have caused any of the natural gas contamination. This will not come as much of a surprise to those in the industry and mechanical engineers.

Study leader Thomas Darrah, assistant professor of earth sciences at Ohio State said, “There is no question that in many instances elevated levels of natural gas are naturally occurring, but in a subset of cases, there is also clear evidence that there were human causes for the contamination. However our data suggests that where contamination occurs, it was caused by poor casing and cementing in the wells.”

Robert Poreda, professor of geochemistry at the University of Rochester explained, “Many of the leaks probably occur when natural gas travels up the outside of the borehole, potentially even thousands of feet, and is released directly into drinking-water aquifers.”

Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke said, “These results appear to rule out the migration of methane up into drinking water aquifers from depth because of horizontal drilling or hydraulic fracturing, as some people feared.”

Robert B. Jackson, professor of environmental and earth sciences at Stanford and Duke pointed out, “In some cases homeowner’s water has been harmed by drilling. In Texas, we even saw two homes go from clean to contaminated after our sampling began.”

“This is relatively good news because it means that most of the issues we have identified can potentially be avoided by future improvements in well integrity,” Darrah said.

In hydraulic fracturing, water is pumped underground to break up shale at a depth far below the water table, he explained. The long vertical pipes that carry the resulting gas upward are encircled in cement to keep the natural gas from leaking out along the well. The study suggests the natural gas that has leaked into aquifers is the result of failures in the cement used in building the well.

The method that the researchers used to track the source of methane contamination relies on the basic physics of the noble gases (which happen to leak out along with the methane). Noble gases such as helium and neon are so called because they don’t react much with other chemicals, although they mix with natural gas and can be transported with it.

That means that when they are released underground, they can flow long distances without getting waylaid by microbial activity or chemical reactions along the way. The only important variable is the atomic mass, which determines how the ratios of noble gases change as they tag along with migrating natural gas. These properties allow the researchers to determine the source of fugitive methane and the mechanism by which it was transported into drinking water aquifers.

The researchers were able to distinguish between the signatures of naturally occurring methane and stray gas contamination from shale gas drill sites overlying the Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania and the Barnett shale in Texas.

The researchers sampled water from the sites in 2012 and 2013. Sampling sites included wells where contamination had been debated previously; wells known to have naturally high level of methane and salts, which tend to co-occur in areas overlying shale gas deposits; and wells located both within and beyond a one-kilometer distance from drill sites.

As hydraulic fracturing starts to develop around the globe, including the countries of South Africa, Argentina, China, Poland, Scotland, and Ireland, Darrah and his colleagues are continuing their work in the United States and internationally. And, since the method that the researchers employed relies on the basic physics of the noble gases, it can be employed anywhere. Their hope is that their findings can help highlight the necessity to improve well integrity.

The team’s hope isn’t misplaced. While the anti fracking crowd can go home now, they probably won’t. There will be new players on the field soon, the trial lawyers will be after the well drilling contractors to pony up for the wells where natural gas is spoiling the water wells.

The story isn’t over, but the hydraulic fracking is not the problem, allowing most well location landowners, most of the natural gas industry, and all of us consumers a great sigh of relief. The problems will get worked out.


Comments

4 Comments so far

  1. MattMusson on September 17, 2014 7:44 AM

    It is important to remember that even those handful of wells with faulty casings only upped the methane levels by less than 2 thousands.

    Interestingly enough – our local newspaper used this study as proof that fracking leads to water contamination.

  2. Brian Westenhaus on September 17, 2014 10:27 AM

    That’s an Amazing Newspaper. Or is it even a newspaper?

  3. Chris Arneson on September 24, 2014 10:26 AM

    While this is certainly good news if correct, it doesn’t instantly make fracking safe. What this shows is that it takes a very careful driller and a strict set of standards to get a good well that does not cause contamination. The whole concept of fracking is pushing enormous pressures into the subsurface which is probably what causes the well casing seal to fail. I’m thrilled with this progress but it is only step one.

  4. Harold Baker on September 24, 2014 12:13 PM

    This article does not have any new information. It is obviously written by an apologist for the industry. Shoddy construction of the wells has long been known as the cause of methane leaks, and contamination of ground water. I notice the author bemoans that the industry might be held accountable for correcting the faulty sites which have been discovered. This will probably affect his profits.
    I saw a documentary in which a researcher traveled the country with a sensitive instrument measuring levels of methane around various fracking sites. He found, fully 5% out of tens of thousands of fracking sites are belching methane into the air, and polluting the ground water. Oversight is almost non existent, as the officials entrusted with protecting our clean air and water have been brought off by the fracking industry.
    The author hopes to pacify the concerned citizens with platitudes, and a false rosy picture. Fracking must be declared illegal everywhere immediately, for the sake of public safety.
    There is no need for fracking at all. They already have such an oversupply of natural gas, it is being exported to China. So Americans are now suffering lethal air and water contamination, so that China can benefit from cheap gas.
    Please help put a stop to this madness.
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