Background On Gas Drilling By Myd

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Flaring the Faucet: The Marcellus Shale Gas Rush

November 4, 2009

Deborah Goldberg, Managing Attorney Earthjustice, Northeast Office

Marcellus and Utica Shales

Development of Horizontal Wells Three stages of development: • Drilling • Stimulation (hydraulic fracturing) • Hydraulic Production fracturing: • 2.4-7.8 million gallons of water/well • 0.5-2% (12,000-156,000 gallons) chemical additives • 30-70% recovery of flowback

Typical Well Site Well pad Water pit Waste pit: • Drilling muds and • Flowback • Produced water

Access roads Pipelines

Marcellus shale drill site in Upshur County, West Virginia. Source: France, David. “The Catskills Gas Rush.” New York Magazine. 21 September 2008. 23 October 2008

Groundwater: Methane Intrusion AP/Judith Kohler

Dimock, PA

Walsenburg, CO REUTERS/Tim Shaffer

Surface Water: Dunkard Creek

Ben Adducchio, WV Public Broadcasting

• 38 miles • High TDS • Golden algae • Death of an entire ecosystem

West-of-Hudson Watershed • 1.1 billion gallons/day • 90% of water supply for 9,000,000 people—half of New York State’s population • Unfiltered water • $2 billion spent to protect supply • Filtration cost: $10-20 billion • Not off limits to gas development

Natural Gas Wells in Chautauqua County, NY

• 4,403 wells through 2009 • 40-80-acre spacing (8-16 well pads per square mile) • 2008 legislation: 640-acre spacing (1 well pad with up to 10 wells per square mile)

Landscape Impacts: Allegheny National Forest, PA

Photo: Allegheny Defense Project

Air Impacts: What You Don’t See . . .

Photographs by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

• Pits, trucks, compressors, pipelines • Greenhouse gas emissions • Particulate emissions • Ozone – lethal even in low doses over time • No regional ozone impact analysis in DSGEIS

Hydrau

Light Pollution

Community Character Impacts “This well is being drilled as this is sent to you. My property sits 175' from the well and my home is 250' feet away!!  Due to mandatory pooling or forced pooling, which is allowed in Ohio, this disaster is happening against my will. All that I have worked for my whole life, to provide a SAFE and HEALTHY environment for my family is being snatched from us.” Louie Chodkiewicz and Family 8540 Wyatt Rd., Broadview Hts., OH March 25, 2009