Fracking Regulations Vary Widely from State to State
Prompted by upgrades in drilling technology and immense reserves of natural gas contained in carbon-rich shales that lies miles deep, a boom in natural gas development is well underway across the United States that is also causing states to scramble to review their drilling regulations and cleanup requirements.
August 31, 2010
By Steve Kellman and Molly Ramsey, Circle of Blue Waternews
www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2010/world/fracking-regulations-vary-widely-from-state-toPrompted by upgrades in drilling technology and immense reserves of natural gas contained in carbon-rich shales that lies miles deep, a boom in natural gas development is well underway across the United States that is also causing states to scramble to review their drilling regulations and cleanup requirements. At risk is the safety of groundwater that millions of people use in their homes and businesses.
Michigan is the latest state to confront the deep shale gas trend as gas companies snatched up leases earlier this year in the Collingwood Shale formation that lies two miles below the surface under the northern part of the state. A May auction of state mineral leases brought in a record $178 million—nearly as much as the state had earned in the past 82 years of lease sales combined.
State officials said they are prepared for the boom, and are reviewing regulations for spacing the wells, and for managing freshwater supplies to the wells, each of which will use 5 million gallons of water or more.
Michigan has “very strong casing and sealing standards which have been successful in protecting fresh water resources,” according to Tom Wellman, mineral and land management manager at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE). Wellman told Circle of Blue that the high cost of drilling the deep horizontal wells needed to tap formations like the Collingwood Shale will limit the number of wells drilled to one every 640 acres—or one square mile—rather than the one well per 80 acres that was common previously.
Hal Fitch, director of the DNRE’s geological survey office, told Circle of Blue that Michigan has a long history with hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking or hydrofracking, the drilling practice that fractures the shale with water and chemicals under high pressure, since most of the gas drilling in the state has involved the technique. But he noted that the deep horizontal wells being drilled into the Collingwood formation require far more water than was needed to develop shallower Antrim Shale wells, which were largely developed in the 1990s. A successful test well drilled by a subsidiary of Canada’s Encana Corporation in Missaukee County required five million gallons of water, Fitch noted. Continue Reading on Circle of Blue Website
