Knowing that Arkansas Catholic is committed to providing its readers with accurate and factual information, please accept this response to the Feb. 4 article titled “Lawsuits, payouts fuel Arkansas’ fracking debate”
Our organization — Arkansas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (AIPRO) — and members strongly agree with the comments made by Sister Rosalie Ruesewald and included in your article. She stated that “creation is a gift and we are here to take care of it”. AIPRO proudly represents tens of thousands of Arkansas mineral owners and thousands of Arkansas men and women who work in our state’s oil and natural gas fields each day and strive to be great stewards of the wonderful energy resources we have been blessed with. We extract oil and natural gas wisely and are helping our nation move toward its goal of energy independence. And the more of it we use, the greater the benefits will be for every citizen of our state and nation…and we are good neighbors in the process.
Before providing specific Arkansas information, some relevant information about the practice of hydraulic fracturing, aka “fracking”, should be shared and considered. This highly controlled process creates micro-fractures within a targeted shale zone thousands of feet below the surface. Hydraulic fracturing has been used in more than one million wells in the United States since the late 1940s. This practice, combined with the relatively new technological breakthrough that allows wells to be drilled directionally or horizontally, has created a modern-day energy bonanza for our country. With more and more of our oil and natural gas demands being met by domestically produced efforts, we are less dependent on countries and their leaders who dislike us, at best, and often want to harm us physically and/or fiscally.
Although the article states that Greenbrier, Ark., is “not normally known as a hotbed of seismic activity,” between 1982 and 2000 (long before the first drill bit was turned in that area in 2004) there were over 40,000 such events in Enola, located just 12 miles east of Greenbrier. The Arkansas Geological Survey (AGS) has an informative and brief description of the “Enola Swarm Area” on its website. The AGS document states that the frequency of activity in this area during the ‘80s and ‘90s makes it “possibly the largest seismic swarm ever recorded in the central United States.” Additionally, students in Greenbrier schools were subjected to not only fire and tornado drills, but also earthquake drills during the 1980s.
Your article states that experts from the University of Memphis and AGS concluded “the quakes were likely touched off by fracking in the area” and that several wells were shut down. This statement is in direct contrast to the comments and testimony made by professionals from both of the cited entities. In fact, during a hearing before the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission (AOGC) in July 2011, regulators and experts agreed there is no evidence of a relationship between production wells or hydraulic fracturing and earthquakes.
However, this regulatory commission did go on to order the shutdown of four salt water disposal injection wells (three of the wells were voluntarily closed before the order) in a 1,150-square mile area. Such injection wells, which are not fractured or used to produce oil or natural gas, are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) program. This program is administered by appropriate state agencies, including AOGC. There are approximately 144,000 such permitted wells in the United States and approximately 700 in Arkansas. Injection wells have been utilized since the 1930s to dispose of non-toxic saltwater generated during oil and natural gas production.
Our fellow Arkansans also need to know that in late 2010, AOGC enacted a rule calling for the disclosure of fluids used in the hydraulic fracturing process. With the implementation of this rule, Arkansas became the second state in the country to require that such information be made available to the public. AOGC’s Rule B-19 mandates that companies who perform fracturing services be registered with the state, and these companies must disclose, in advance, all the chemicals they might use in this process. After a well is fractured, a listing of all of the chemicals specifically used is provided to AOGC, which then posts this information on a well-by-well basis on its website.
Although your article states that some 700 chemicals are used to fracture a well, let’s be clear. There may be that many specific fluids that are suitable for such applications nationwide, but generally only about 10-15 such additives (or less) are used in any one well. It’s also important to report and pass along to your readers that roughly 90 percent of the fluid used to fracture wells in the Fayetteville Shale is water, 9.5 percent sand (used to prop open the micro-fractures), and the remaining 0.5 percent chemically-based additives.
The AOGC has strict rules in place, enforced by frequent inspections that require multiple layers of steel casing and cement to protect the ground water zones during the drilling and hydraulic fracturing steps. Just last year, the U.S. Geological Survey released a study they conducted to examine the water quality of 127 shallow domestic water wells in the Fayetteville Shale natural gas production area. The results: no groundwater contamination associated with natural gas production. We hope that these facts will be informative to your readers and we appreciate the opportunity to respond.
