Water Quality and Quantity Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing

Current Sustainable/Renewable Energy Reports, Mar 2015

The academic literature has lagged both industry and public opinion in measuring and characterizing potential water quantity and quality concerns related to hydraulic fracturing (fracking). However, the science behind fracking’s water impacts experienced its own boom during the 2010s. In this paper, we address this critical emerging environmental and energy issue, providing an overview of the current state of knowledge, with a particular focus on academic journal articles that have been published in the past five years. These studies have generally found that the water quantity impacts of shale gas and tight oil development are, on average, not significantly worse than for their conventional counterparts, though the specific location and timing of withdrawals for energy development matter. On the other hand, recent findings also suggest that the water quality concerns associated with fracking may be more serious than water quantity concerns.

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Water Quality and Quantity Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing

Curr Sustainable Renewable Energy Rep Water Quality and Quantity Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing Yusuke Kuwayama 0 1 Sheila Olmstead 0 1 Alan Krupnick 0 1 0 S. Olmstead LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin , P.O. Box Y, E2700, Austin, TX 78713 , USA 1 Y. Kuwayama ( The academic literature has lagged both industry and public opinion in measuring and characterizing potential water quantity and quality concerns related to hydraulic fracturing (fracking). However, the science behind fracking's water impacts experienced its own boom during the 2010s. In this paper, we address this critical emerging environmental and energy issue, providing an overview of the current state of knowledge, with a particular focus on academic journal articles that have been published in the past five years. These studies have generally found that the water quantity impacts of shale gas and tight oil development are, on average, not significantly worse than for their conventional counterparts, though the specific location and timing of withdrawals for energy development matter. On the other hand, recent findings also suggest that the water quality concerns associated with fracking may be more serious than water quantity concerns. Shale gas; Unconventional gas; Tight oil; Unconventional oil; Hydraulic fracturing; Surface water; Groundwater; Water quality; Water scarcity Introduction The production of crude oil and natural gas from unconventional reservoirs has expanded dramatically in recent years, particularly in the United States. U.S. production of natural gas from deep shale formations in particular is projected to continue accelerating through 2040, supplying both the U.S. and foreign markets; U.S. domestic oil production from shale is expected to grow through 2020 and then level off [ 1 ]. Exploitation of these resources has been facilitated by advances in several technologies, including hydraulic fracturing, directional drilling, and seismic imaging. The first of these technologies, hydraulic fracturing (fracking), has raised concerns over potential impacts on water resources, as fracked wells are thought to require more water per unit of energy produced than conventional wells, and the chemicals added to the water and pumped underground with high pressure can be damaging to the environment. While public concerns over groundwater and surface water pollution have grown over time, the academic literature has lagged in measuring and characterizing potential water quantity and quality concerns related to fracking. In the past four years, however, the science of fracking’s water impacts has experienced its own boom. This paper addresses this critical emerging environmental and energy issue, providing an overview of the current state of knowledge, most of which thus far has come from study sites in the U.S., where the energy industry and associated manufacturing sectors have been transformed by fracking and the resulting abundance of accessible domestic oil and gas. We focus on the impacts from production of unconventional oil and gas and do not discuss the impacts of their consumption (e.g., in electricity generation or transportation) on water resources, because these impacts would be similar whether energy production were from conventional or unconventional sources. Description of Shale gas, Tight oil, and Hydraulic Fracturing Shale gas is methane and related gases that occur in fractures and pore spaces between individual mineral grains of lowpermeability shale formations, or that can be adsorbed onto minerals or organic matter within shale rock. Tight oil, sometimes referred to as “shale oil” (not to be confused with oil shale), is similarly found in shale, but can also be produced from other sedimentary rock such as siltstone and sandstone. The presence of these fossil fuel resources within lowpermeability formations requires horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to make their exploitation economically feasible. Though both technologies have a relatively long history—fracking was used commercially in the oil and gas industry as early as 1950, and horizontal wells were common by the late 1970s [ 2 ]—innovations in these technologies have driven the recent boom. Wells for shale gas and tight oil are first drilled vertically, and then turned horizontally to follow the oil- or gas-bearing formation, significantly increasing the surface area of the wellbore exposed to the formation. Multiple lateral wells are typically drilled from a given well pad. Hydraulic fracturing involves injecting water, sand, and chemical additives (such as scale inhibitors, friction reducers, and biocides) into the wellbore at very high pressure so as to create small fractures in the formation and prop open pathways for hydrocarbons to flow out of the well once the pressure is removed. Shale gas production in the United States grew from about 1 trillion cubic feet (tcf) in 2006 to about 9.7 tcf in 2012, and i (...truncated)


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Yusuke Kuwayama, Sheila Olmstead, Alan Krupnick. Water Quality and Quantity Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing, Current Sustainable/Renewable Energy Reports, 2015, pp. 17-24, Volume 2, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1007/s40518-014-0023-4