Kim Feil (me) speaking at a public TCEQ hearing-falling on deaf ears-they don’t read their own literature!
Dec 2014 UPATE…
A Duke professor reported that chloride, bromide, sodium, manganese, strontium and barium have been found in Wolf Creek that may be linked to migration from a nearby waste water injection well in Virginia. These are chemicals linked to fracking wastewater and have been ruled out as having been sourced from any previous acid mine drainage contamination.
end update
—(I boldfaced for emphasis)
http://www.tsswcb.state.tx.us/files/contentimages/UCRWRMP.pdf
5.2.2 Oil Field Contamination
“Since the 1920s, oil and gas exploration has been a major industry in the counties of West Texas. In 1998, the combined total production from oil fields in Mitchell, Scurry, and Howard Counties was 17,917,877 barrels (TCEQ, 2003). The oil extraction process creates brine, and when the ratio of salt water to oil increases, the well becomes unprofitable and is, in most cases, abandoned. Many abandoned wells develop cracks and leaks that can eventually contaminate groundwater and surface water (TCEQ, 2003).
From the 1920s through 1969, brine disposal pits were utilized to dispose of the brine that accompanies oil production. These disposal sites consisted of large, shallow, unlined pits where water was disposed of by evaporation and seepage (TCEQ, 2003). However, when brine evaporated from these pits, salts were left behind that eventually infiltrated the shallow subsurface and local groundwater. When brine disposal pits were banned in 1969, oil companies began to inject brine into the subsurface strata to dispose of the excess salt water and to recover oil deposits from under-pressurized geologic formations (TCEQ, 2003).
As technology has improved and the costs of injection have decreased, the volume of brine injected into these wells has increased. In many cases, the geologic formations that are utilized for brine injection are located beneath shallow aquifers (TCEQ, 2003).
Groundwater can become contaminated from salt water migration or within the injection well itself, and surface water bodies can be affected where these formations outcrop. Contamination from injection wells has usually been attributed to cracked casings, leaking boreholes, or wells that have not been operated properly (TCEQ, 2003).”
I have contacted Freese and Nichols, Inc for footnote info on the (TCEQ 2003) statements and will update this if they respond.
Here is an Australian article on vertical drilling methane water contamination…
http://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/soekor-boreholes-still-exhale-gas-1.1401646#.VR3rN5TF8WU
