Ken Ward in the Sustained Outrage blog, May 13, reports “With the start of drilling approaching, the Morgantown Utility Board is seeking additional safeguards for the city’s water supply from any potential problems associated with Northeast Natural Energy’s plans for Marcellus Shale wells just upstream from the area’s water intake on the Monongahela River.” The crux of the issue is summarized by MUB manager Tim Ball in a May 10 letter to the WVDEP. ”The distance from the well pad to the raw water intake will be about 3,000 feet as the crow flies. More importantly, any substance that is discharged to a stream or drainage pipe from the well site will enter the Monongahela River a mere 1,500 feet (approximately) upstream of our raw water intake. These proximities are a cause of unique concern.”
A second letter to the WVDEP from Ball requests safeguards be added as addendums to the permits, including;
– Redundant containment structures for drilling fluids, tailings, drilling mud and fracking fluids;
– Additional testing of the drill casing pipes to protect against potential leaks;
– Removal of all drilling residuals and fracking fluids from the site, rather than disposal on site as permitted;
- A record of the custody chain for disposal of waste;
-The use of water based drilling muds, not oil-based.
Ball notes in this letter that the drilling is set to begin on Monday, and says: We request that drilling not commence until the spill containment measures discussed above have been fully implemented. Similarly, no other phase of work should begin until related measures discussed above have been fully implemented.
Local citizens are very concerned and it is expected that there will be a turnout at the next Morgantown City Council meeting on Tuesday evening, May 17.
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These fluids must be treated as hazardous waste and closely followed and documented from “cradle to grave”. The idea that the Morgantown Industrial Zone is already heavily contaminated does not make it acceptable to foul it further. AMD streams that are returning to health are now being assaulted by overland flow of these toxic drilling wastewaters. Stream restoration progress going down the drain…. The worst thing is that we can never be sure when a well casing or a waste transmission pipe wil burst or leak. We all have seen old conventional wells rust away. The same is going to happen with these wells, and the kids will be left to deal with it. They’ll be out there, plugging the wells, pumping gallons upon gallons of cement; drinking bottled water.
With so little oversite of fracking available and so much at stake in rural WV where all our drinking water is produced from wells springs or streams of local development; it seams absurd to even consider the possible contamination by the fluids currently being used for fracking even if they can generally be contained and disposed of as the excess of that pumped underground … the poisons left behind will eventually get into most of the wells and leak into streams through springs coming to the surface from aquifers deep underground