Green Fracking?
Re: Commentary
by John Streicker (Whitehorse city councillor), Star, 2 Aug. 2013.
According to a
short bio taken from the YEC site, John Streicker has a Bachelor degree in
computer science and Geography and a Masters degree in Geodesy and Geomatics;
Which is essentially more geography, GIS, mapping etc. as his qualification of
a registered engineer. The Duty of a Professional Engineer to the Public under
the Code of Ethics of the Association of Professional Engineers of Yukon
clearly stipulates that: “ Every professional engineer shall:
1. regard their
duty to public welfare as paramount;
4. not express
publicly, ... opinions on professional engineering that are not founded on
adequate knowledge ...”.
Short of
qualifications not listed, it means as an engineer, he should not speak to
drill technology and field geology (I have work experience and training in
those fields). If he could talk about well bore integrity his statements
would have to include existing and certain harm to the public. This has been
left out of his statements on hydraulic fracturing.
John Streicker
speculates about risks of gas fracking. In reality the already accumulated
evidence for harm to environment, economy and energy security describes a
prohibitive certainty, according to leading independent scholars and
experts. Among them are natural gas drilling veteran and inventor, Dr.
Ingraffea, and natural gas drilling entrepreneurs such as Arthur Berman, along
with veteran economists and financial analysts for natural gas like Deborah Rogers.
Beyond that, there are many more aspects of intensifying damage in abandoned
and forever decaying frack gas fields.
Streicker
states: “These (risks) include water usage (1), contamination (2), and fugitive
emissions (3). All three of these risks depend on the integrity of the
wells drilled.”
This limitation
and linking of pollution only to well integrity has no basis in Petroleum
Engineering, Hydrology and Geology.
1. Water
contamination is not limited to the effect of well failures which are fairly
constant at about one third of all wells within 20 years. It is not water
that is pumped downhole, as Streicker claims, but frack fluid which is water
polluted by toxic frack ingredients and chemicals like Benzene and
Glycol. Regardless of well failures, on average, water turned into
polluted frack fluid has increased to about 50 million litres per well. This is
equivalent to trillions of litres from one of the Yukon Southern Lakes to frack
about 100 000 wells. These are typical figures for full spatial build out of a
large shale development like the Horn Basin, or potentially the Whitehorse
Trough.
2. Methane
that never touched the well area rises up through fault lines and fissures from
fractured deep shale, some of which goes into solution in water bodies. This is
demonstrated in “Potential Contamination Pathways from Hydraulically Fractured
Shale to Aquifers” by Tom Myers in the scientific “Groundwater” journal, April
2012. Myers’ modelling represented an important achievement as methane
goes into solution of lake, river and aquifer water. There it is found in toxic
concentrations, while the individual faultline/fissure pathways are hard to
pinpoint.
3.
Obviously, fugitive emissions are not limited to the gas well zone and cannot
be minimized by improvements in drill technology. Streicker states, “As a
fossil fuel, I think we should consider it only if we have confidence that
fugitive emissions will be well below one per cent.” There is no basis to talk
about minimal fugitive emissions of frack gas development that would or could
be under 1 % of production. Indications and evidence for fugitive well
emissions around 4 - 8 %, many fold of Streicker’s considerations, existed for some time and the
percentage is increasing. At an American Geophysical Union meeting in San
Francisco in Dec. 2012, delegations of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) and the University of Colorado at Boulder looked at the trend of peer reviewed studies. One recent study showed a figure of 9 per cent
fugitive well emissions of total frack gas production, but the findings may continue to creep upwards.
Streicker raises
the expectation that regional energy needs would be met by local natural gas
production: ”And this convoluted path brings us back to natural gas, because
it is a potential local energy source.” This is another
complete fiction. Companies at the doorstep or already operating in Yukon like
the China National Off Shore Oil Corporation, Shell, Encana or others like
them, are not interested in Yukon jobs or the heating of Yukon homes.
Their focus is to profiteer on financial, carbon trade and other subsidy
markets and make our energy security and affordability dependent on their
whims. Natural gas is never produced for local needs in the way of renewable
energy. Producing regions have, except for a shipping discount, no priority
access to their gas, which levels out in a North America wide
distribution.
Mr. Streicker
wants to “... establish solid regulations.” That only makes sense as part of
gas fracking. Along regulations it does not improve safety but descend into a
standard of more and more brute force destruction of geology and total
degradation of landscape.
Streicker posts
on a Green Party blog, "Our prime alternate energy potential is natural
gas." This is a continuing drive towards gas fracking the Yukon. According
to up to date oil & gas reserve studies at the Yukon Geological Survey, Yukon
doesn’t have proven, recoverable, conventional natural gas reserves.
Streicker
follows the concept of fracked gas as alternate energy; When on the contrary,
it is the dirtiest fuel known to man but it just sounds a little bit like
alternative energy. Recently, visitors to Whitehorse City Council chambers have
noticed city councillor Streicker leaves no hair un-split and no stone unturned
to stop city council from passing a frack free resolution. It would follow the
common sense of municipalities across North America, CYFN and the Vuntut
Gwitchin in passing a frack free resolution. The resolution is before
council partly as a deterrent against threats to Whitehorse drinking water such
as gas fracking into the Whitehorse aquifer. This is relevant as the oil
& gas moratorium for the Whitehorse Trough will run out in 2016.
A cold pursuit
of gas fracking the Yukon, somewhat disguised by a language of ecological
sentiment, requires this high level of communication skills. It also involves a
disrespect to those green minded people who gave Mr. Streicker their support.
