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>>Man: We keep a very close eye on all of this.
That's our job.
>>Narration: A gas drilling boom for West Virignia
means a closer look at environmental regulations for the industry
plus saving energy means saving money how some West Virginia counties are
using a high-tech solution
to ease the squeeze on their budget.
Hello everyone and welcome to Environment Matters. I'm Kathy Cosco with the
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
Drilling for oil and gas is nothing new in West Virginia.
Commercial operations of the state date back to the eighteen hundreds.
But the demand for domestic energy coupled with new technologies that allow
developers to tap gas deposits trapped deep inside rock formations
has led to the rapid expansion gas exploration and development
in the state.
Balancing those economic benefits while maintaining stewardship of the land
water and air,
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is taking a
proactive approach
and it works oversee a complex industry.
>>Narration: It's a common sight among the rolling hills of West Virginia
and increasingly
so is this.
Gas exploration and development is on the rise in West Virginia
and the Marcellus shale formation found under much of the state is what is
getting all the attention these days. >>James Martin: It's been known that the Marcellus
contained gas in the past and there are wells that have been drilled through the Marcellus and some wells
have even produced
from the Marcellus
but not the magnitude we're having now.
>>Narration: James Martin is Chief of the Office of Oil and Gas
the section of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
charged with overseeing the tens of thousands of oil and gas wells the dot
the state.
He says what's driving all the development
is a combination of technologies:
horizontal drilling
and hydraulic fracturing. >>James Martin: Horizontal drilling has
been more common in other places than it has here. It's just coming
into to West Virginia, really, in the last few years with any kind
of magnitude. The conventional operation here for vertical wells - West Virginia
has a long history of oil and gas development but it's been
of the vertical well nature.
Going back to the late eighteen hundreds, oil and gas wells have been drilled here
and over the last several decades some of those operations have included hydraulic fracturing
but they didn't include horizontal drilling
most likely except for the last few years. >>Narration: Here's a simplified look
at how the process works.
A rig drills down below the deepest layer of underground water,
the aquifer.
The sides of the wellbore are sealed with steel casing
and cement
to isolate the well from the ground water.
The drilling is then continued down thousands of feet
where a special type of drilling equipment curves the wellbore horizontally
into the shale formation.
After that's filled with casing and perforated, a mixture of sand, water and
chemicals - fracking fluid -
is pumped in it high pressure
causing fractures in the shale formation allowing the gas a pathway to escape.
It's a different process that requires a different framework of regulation.
>>James Martin: These operations are just different and so we started looking
at that.
We spent several months looking what than the concerns were.
We actually came out with a guidance document
and basically focusing on water use.
>>Narration: That led to new regulations on things like water
withdrawals from the streams and the disposal of waste water from the
fracking process.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection began addressing
concerns over horizontal drilling and fracking as early as 2008.
In August of 2011, Governor Earl Ray Tomlin issued an
executive order establishing new rules on water use, site design and engineering
and erosion and sediment control.
In special session that December, the Legislature expanded those rules and
substantially increased permitting fees.
Seeing that the work is done correctly
and in an environmentally correct manner is the job of DEP Oil and Gas inspectors
and that work starts before even a shovel of dirt is turned over.
>>Bill Hatfield At the permitting stage we need to come out and review he site before it's permitted.
When construction starts, we need to come out and see that they're following
the rec plan.
>>Narration: The "rec" or reclamation plan actually starts very early in the process.
>>Richard Campbell: We're trying to have
a gas well location actually
reclaimed - not causing any environmental problems before the drill
even gets there. We require erosion sediment controls be in place
during the clearing of the well site
as well as during the construction of the site. Another thing that we
require on these sites is
vegetation, either temporary or permanent.
During the construction process, we try not to leave any disturbed ground during
the drilling and reclamation process.
>>Narration: Because of the size and complexity of the operation,
drilling rigs are often on the site for months at a time
with state inspections happening throughout the process.
>>Bill Hatfield: The conventional well would take maybe
five days to a week to complete - a very small location size.
Now we're spending
several months on some of these pads. During the drilling process we want to
absolutely be there for the fresh water casing
then again we definitely will be out when they get into their
curve and start into the Marcellus shale.
If they're running their surface freshwater casing
we may be here all day, sometimes all night. >>Narration: Once the drill rig moves off and the
site is producing gas, it takes on a different look.
This site in Doddridge County was finished just four months ago.
>>Richard Campbell: The sites are
fairly large
and because of the time it takes to construct these sites
normally the reclamation needs to be staged.
The larger sites need better water control.
We've got to address
site drainage off the the level site itself,
making sure that
we've got enough water control to handle any
erosion problems.
If we see a problem,
if Mother Nature
creates a problem with excessive rainfall,
the main thing is if there's a problem of sediment
that we fix the controls.
We may have to rebuild some of the sediment controls
after a storm event, but that's what we try to address.
We try to be proactive and and head off sediment control problems
and end up with the site that's not causing a problem.
>>Bill Hatfield: When they're getting near finished with the reclamation we want to be here a lot
for any touch ups
we need done
and to make sure it is up to our standard.
>>Narration: Standards that are very protective of the water and overall environment.
>>Bill Hatfield: These sites have
liners put under the gravel.
Pads put down...
Everything out here the contains any type of fluid has a secondary
impoundment around it.
And if there is a spill, it's always collected in that secondary
confinement. Anything coming up on the ground cannot touch the ground.
It has to be pumped
directly into tanks
so it can be hauled off and disposed of properly.
>>Narration: And because horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing is more efficient,
requiring fewer well bores,
the larger site can have an overall smaller footprint.
>>Bill Hatfield: We may have a five acre
pad out here
for this well, but there may be
six horizontal wells here that could be equal
to forty to fifty conventional wells
all confined to one pad
with one road going to all of them
instead of fifty roads going through the farmer's field.
>>Narration: Ultimately it comes down to having the right regulations in place and the
resources to ensure that these sites are operating in a safe, environmentally
sensitive manner -
something James Martin says the state has accomplished. >>James Martin: The issue here was
trying to work within the current framework
and apply those requirements
to these kinds of operations and that was
the challenge, but the new legislation
I think gets us in a much, much better position do that and also gives us
additional resources to do that because
one of the
provisions in the legislation is a
substantial increase in permit fees
and that's going to allow us to get
more staff on board
which we really desperately need
to build a better monitor things and to better review
permits and do things timely
so will be in better position, I think, all around.
>>Kathy Cosco: The DEP is looking for Oil and Gas Inspectors, Inspector Specialists and
Inspector Supervisors.
Details of these class specifications are available on the Division of Personal's
website. You can find out more about checking out our website:
dep.wv.gov
Cleaning up mine sites abandoned prior to tougher environmental regulations
passed in the late nineteen seventies is the job of the DEP's Office of Abandoned
Mine Lands and Reclamation.
That office was honored last year by the U.S. Department of the Interior with an
Appalachian Regional Award
for a mining reclamation project in Tucker County.
Here's the DEP's Tom Aluise with more...
>>Narration: The Kempton Refuse and Acid Mine Drainage project is a sixty acre site located not
far from the headwaters of the North Branch of the Potomac River near the
Maryland border.
It was first mined back in the eighteen eighties and was abandoned and left in dangerous
condition in the 1950s
before current laws requiring the reclamation of former mine sites were enacted.
The project, which was completed in 2009 at a cost of $2.3
million dollars involved back filling
re-grading and planting vegitation along nearly a half mile exposed high
wall, installing seals on two partially collapsed mine portals
and removing two surface water impoundments.
>>David Brochart: Everything was acid producing
the stone, the rock
on top
the black stuff - everything. It was all gob pile
and acid producing material.
The sandstone is acid producing...
The coal reject was acid producing...
This site didn't have anything going for it. >>Narration: David Brochart is the DEP's regional engineer
for northern West Virginia.
He says the slight has seen a lot of changes for the better.
>>David Brochart: I think it looks really great. We've done no maintainence to the site sight
other than monitoring the water quality which,
prior to construction, pH ran from two-and-a-half to three point four
and since construction we're running somewhere between six and seven pH at all times.
>>Narration: Limestone was added to tributaries and natural stream design techniques were
used to help neutralize the water coming from the site.
Acid mine drainage from the former mine portals, which also contains a high
concentration of aluminum,
is treated by passive system that filters the water through a series of cells.
>>David Brochart: This was the worst a_m_d_ producing site
in West Virginia on the Pootmac
so we turned that completely around
and made it one of the better
areas on the Upper Potomac.
>>Narration: And the Department of the Interior's Offices of Surface Mining agrees, calling
Kempton an exemplary reclamation project.
In Tucker County, West Virginia, I'm Tom Aluise for Environment Matters.
>>Kathy Cosco: The Office of Abandoned Mine Lands and Reclamation is getting more than
$66 million dollars in federal grant money this year
to help eliminate health and safety hazards created by historical
coal mining.
A year-long study of water supplies in Boone Counnty showed no widespread
evidence of mining activity impacting ground water quality in the study area.
Triad Engineering of Scott Depot looked at homes along Hopkins Fork of
the Big Coal River from Seth to Prenter.
Triad visited one hundred homes for interviews and sampled 33 wells.
Technicians also collected samples from surface water, mine and valley fill
discharges and coal slurry.
The study concluded that complains of odors and coloration in the water most
likely related to naturally occurring bacteria that breakdown iron and sulfate
rather than human impacts.
A large part of the study area from Seth upstream to Nelson now has public water.
Two wells near a reclaimed surface mine site showed the greatest evidence of mine related
impact.
Those wells had elevated levels of sulfate, iron, manganese and aluminum.
Neither well is used as a drinking water source.
The study also found one well that tested positive for high lead levels.
The owner of that well lives in an area served by public water.
None of the other thirty-two wells sampled in this study area exceeded
the primary drinking water standards for metals.
Researchers say further investigation is needed. Coming up: Taking the show on the
road. We'll check out DEP Day at the state capitol.
Plus... >>Man: When you think about it, it's like throwing money out the window.
>>Kathy Cosco: Old and inefficient government buildings are putting a strain on many
county budgets.
Ahead, how some county leaders are taking a high-tech approach to save energy
and money.
But first:
Did you know the nearly ninety percent of plastic water bottles and not recycled,
ending up in landfills in the landscape and taking thousands of years to
decompose?
Instead, buy a reusable container and fill it with tap water.
It's a great choice for the environment and your wallet.
We're back in just a moment.