Drilling fluid use stirs fear
Posted on Thursday, August 28, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/235592/
Landowners in White County have expressed concerns about traffic and pollution they say will follow the latest proposal to allow land application of water-based drilling fluids from natural gas well sites in their area.
Ken McConnaughhay, owner of ArkansasPetro 1, is seeking a permit from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality for an 84-acre facility just outside of Griffithville that would accept drilling fluid for storage in two holding ponds. Eventually, the fluid would be applied to land using an irrigation system.
Department officials will hold a hearing from 6-8 p. m. today at the former senior citizens building, at 208 Main St. in Griffithville.
The drilling fluid is water used in the drilling process to extract natural gas from the Fayetteville Shale, McConnaughhay said.
“I am only accepting certain types of water,” he said. “I am not accepting any oil-based or high-salt-content water... Whenever you look at an analysis of it, it is the same materials that we apply to our farm on purpose.”
But several residents in the area, as well as the Griffithville City Council, have sent letters to the department opposing the plan because of concerns about long-term health effects, as well as about the number of trucks that will travel Arkansas 11 to the facility.
Griffithville Mayor Windle Porter said there are a few similar facilities nearby, and residents have already seen the problems they cause.
“They have an odor,” Porter said. “And the long-term effects of what they put in those things — no one knows what is going to happen.”
He said residents are worried about roads and property values and believe the proposed facility is too close to the city limits.
“These oil companies are probably the best thing that has happened to those counties since the missile bases,” Porter said, referring to the Titan II missile silos that once dotted the landscape. “They do a lot of good, but I’m still worried about the long-term effects.”
As proposed, the operation would contain two holding pits. Each pit would be lined with a synthetic material, and would hold between 70, 000 and 80, 000 barrels of fluid each, McConnaughhay said. Once the pit is filled, the water will be spread by irrigation over the remaining property.
If granted, the permit wouldn’t allow fluid to be applied to land when it is raining or when rain is expected. It also requires the water to be monitored on-site and for samples to be submitted to the Environmental Quality Department for testing, said Doug Szenher, spokesman for the department.
McConnaughhay said he will only accept fluid from one company, and that all water will be tested before it is taken to the facility.
“There are a lot of checks and balances to make sure nothing goes wrong,” he said. “Griffithville is my hometown. I was born and raised there, and I don’t want anything bad to happen.”
The Environmental Quality Department has had several of these permit applications lately, since drilling in the Fayetteville Shale began, Szenher said.
The Fayetteville Shale, a natural-gas formation that stretches from north-central Arkansas to the Mississippi River, is expected to have a $ 22 billion impact on the Arkansas economy between 2005 and 2012, according to a study from the University of Arkansas.
In Texas, where there is similar drilling in a natural gas formation called the Barnett Shale near Fort Worth, similar operations have existed for years, said Ramona Nye, spokesman for the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry.
Nye said she is not aware of any environmental concerns about land application of drilling fluid but added, “Texas is a big state.”
Recent news reports have raised concerns about the environmental impact of fracturing fluid, which is a chemical mixture pumped deep in the ground to crack rock seams and aid in the shale drilling process.
But fracturing fluid cannot be land applied in Arkansas, Szenher said.
The department will accept written public comments through Sept. 17. Written comments should be sent to Marcus Tilley, 5301 North Shore Drive, North Little Rock, Ark., 72118.
Once comments are received, the department will decide whether to grant the permit, Szenher said.