Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 07.15.08
Photo by Will Andruschack.
When Lighting Your Water on Fire Isn't a Magic Trick
Jessica Ernst lives in the village of Rosebud, Alberta, East of Calgary. EnCana, a big oil & gas company, is operating close to her house. The photo above speaks for itself. Read on for her story.
Living Next to EnCana
According to Fast Forward Weekly:
In 2005, Ernst noticed something was happening to the water from her well. At first, her dogs wouldn’t drink it. Then, she saw it was fizzing as if it was carbonated. In December, she couldn’t turn her taps off: there was so much gas in her water, it raised the pressure and forced its way through her pipes.She also discovered she could light it on fire. When lit, a huge blue flame burns on the surface of the water, before turning orange and escaping upward like a flare. 'It still scares me,' she says. 'You never know what the water is going to do.'
Tests on her water revealed high levels of methane, ethane and several other fossil fuels. It also showed signs of heavy hydrocarbons, like the ones used in drilling fluids.
Photos by Will Andruschack.
But of course, according to EnCana, it's not the company's fault. It has denied having contaminated Rosebud’s water supply. Earlier this year, a provincial report on Ernst’s well even concluded that the gas in the well was naturally occurring and had nothing to do with the company.
But, also from Fast Forward Weekly:
A company report from 2005, for instance, shows that EnCana fraced the underground aquifer where area landowners get their water. A test by University of Alberta water expert Karlis Muehlenbachs also showed strong similarities between the gas in Ernst’s well and the gas EnCana was pumping out of the ground nearby.
Alberta's Environmental Problems
Alberta Tar Sands to Increase Output 250% Over Next 10 Years
A Picture is Worth... The Alberta Tar Sands
Tar Sands: The Most Destructive Project on Earth
Canadian Oil: At What Price?
More on Citizen EnCana
Citizen Encana: The double life of Calgary’s greatest corporation
Holy crap!
Are these not quotes from the book "Stupid to the Last Drop" by William Marsden? Anyone interested in the horrific side-effects of Alberta's Tar Sands mining, or interested in the socio-/enviro-political history of oil in Alberta is highly encouraged to read this book.
Maybe she should sell her well water to the Genepax guys.
BWahahahah, best comment ever, mediageek :)
Maybe it's her water that the supposed "water car" is designed to run on?
She lives in an area with high levels of hydrocarbons in the ground and sank a well. The water comes up contaminated with hydrocarbons. A company nearby explores the area and finds gas, drills for gas. Homeowner blames company for hydrocarbons in her water. Court finds company innocent. Obviously I haven't seen the details of the case, but I definitely wouldn't jump to the conclusion that the company is at fault without some very strong evidence. I would suggest she look into the possibility of selling drilling rights on her land. Also, I think she should be investigated for releasing hydrocarbons into the atmosphere by drilling that well. Sounds like she is releasing some really nasty green house gases. She really should have done some environmental impact studies before drilling that well, I'm sure the gas company was required to do them.
what is "fraced" I assume it means drilled into .. but does it imply with a pipe acting as a wall or the rock acting as a wall to the gasses coming out?
Hendu, I'm pretty sure people have been living in that village for a very long time, and drinking water for just about the same amount of time.
Yeah hendu, the article indicates this just started happening in 2005, whereas the people living there have been presumably drinking water for a while.
i advice her to get out of this village
water is life
contaminate the water and you will expect all the deseases of the world
water there can be used by companies trying to find new source of energy and not by normal citisens
environmentalist
"fraced" refers to the oil industry process of fracturing the source rock for better extraction efficiency.
In practice, a fluid is pumped into the borehole to "hydrofrac" or hydraulically fracture the source rock.
The idea is to end up with cracks in the source rock to allow faster and more complete extraction of the oil or gas. It would not be surprising if the contamination of these wells is a side effect of the drilling operation.
More on wikipedia:
Hydraulic Fracturing on Wikipedia
Stable isotope geochemistry was the method used to test the gases coming out of the well water. Isotopes of hydrogen are compared to those from the formation gases and other gases. If the isotopic signatures match it, the argument can be made that the gas in the water is from the well. If not then they may be naturally occuring gases from shallower or deeper locations.
As well... in response to hendu specifically ...generally potable (drinkable) water aquifers are quite shallow in the ground, or else you get into water that is not of the quality you need to drink, and gas reservoirs, even shallow ones, are much deeper. They are generally separated by aquitards which stop deep salty water and hydrocarbons from migrating up into the overlying formations, unless there is some way to get through... which in the case of a large drill hole there is a highly permeable pathway for underlying fluids to pass up into overlying aquifers if the bore holes are not sealed properly. So it may be that drilling the gas holes is creating a pathway for contaminants to infiltrate clean aquifers that would normally be isolated.
This is what studies are trying to determine.
Well, I'm not sure there is a direct correlation between their exploration and the gas in water.
My father's property sits right above a pretty large coal vein and you can frequently get the exact same results from his water.
Water I might add that he and his neighbors have used without ill effect for going on 20 years now.
Appalling! The whole world needs to know about this!
Actually, I've seen this before. I grew up in a small town in Eastern Ontario, and about a 20 min drive from our house there was an abandoned water pump that you could also light on fire.
There is no industry near there for hundreds of kilometers, it's all farmland. I was by my science teacher at the time that there was an underground gas pocket that was mixing with the water pocket that the pump drew from, thus the water that could burn for a short period of time.
I'm not crazy about big industry, but this is a natural occurence, so I don't think we should go laying blame on anyone.
"I'm not crazy about big industry, but this is a natural occurence, so I don't think we should go laying blame on anyone."
It can occur naturally, but in this case, they studied the water and didn't just find nat gas, but other chemicals that are linked to the oil & gas development.
This is NATURAL, happens all the time in Alberta and actually across North America.
I've seen this MANY MANY MANY times in Alberta.
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex10840
Once again treehugger takes a naturally occurring even and lies about it, to make a bunch of chicken littles all yell the sky is falling.
Pathetic
"This is NATURAL, happens all the time in Alberta and actually across North America. "
Did you just look at the picture before commenting? Here, I'll quote it for you:
"Tests on her water revealed high levels of methane, ethane and several other fossil fuels. It also showed signs of heavy hydrocarbons, like the ones used in drilling fluids."
There's not just nat gas in her water, and people have been living in that village for a long time before that happened.
This isn't the first thing I've heard like this. Look up Petrolia, PA for a story about how the entire town can no longer use their water. I've been there and saw the local convenience store with racks of 5 gallon bottles to supply the coffee and soda machines. Really weird setup. Looks like the town was built around the refinery, so what can you expect.
Actually, I like how restrained treehugger was with this story,
Other sites would have gone all sensationalistic, and pointed fingers.
Here we have: This is what happened, and then quotes from the news items. Just reporting what is known and condensing it, so good job.
I saw farmers about 30 miles east of Rosebud with their water wells rigged up to trap the gas to burn when I was working in the area over 30 years ago. Im sure that there was probably hydrocarbon contamination in the waer then, but it never seemed to be much of a problem before.
Please do some research on natural gas. You will find that it is a variable soup of hydrocarbons containing large fractions of methane and ethane as well as smaller fractions of heavier hydrocarbons. Considering the unjustified leap between the hydrocarbons and the drilling, I would say that this article is biased.
Additionally, ownership of the hydrocarbons (natural gas) is determined by mineral rights, not property ownership. If a barrier was broken that allowed cross contamination of the aquifer, I don't believe the company would be liable or that the property owners have any right to extract or use the natural gas.
As previously stated, this is common and if the property owners don't like the situation, they should consider leaving as they don't have any other options.
@Kailen
"I would say that this article is biased"
The article simply reported the facts, and didn't draw it's own conclusions so...no. Just no.
"If a barrier was broken that allowed cross contamination of the aquifer, I don't believe the company would be liable or that the property owners have any right to extract or use the natural gas""
No again. The company didn't get rights for everyone's land as evidenced by the full article and cross contamination into a water supply is guaranteed to get you in legal trouble. I really don't know where you're coming from expecting basically a full pardon for things that are in fact, in clear violation of every set standard for drilling and the fact they are contaminating water sources directly.
where is Erin Brockevich when you need her?!?!
guess all you guys should quit using that natural gas to power your water heaters and heat your homes if you have such a problem with it. my husband and i own a oil and natural gas company that works for Encana. In our experience Encana has the strongest environmental and safety policies of any oil company on the Western Slope of Colorado. (and there are many out here) There are consequences of drilling but, until you all are completely off of fossil fuels lets not judge companies and industries you aren't familiar with...
by the way this women should really look into surface and mineral rights!!!! she could make a lot of money if she owns them on her property and could move to somewhere else. these gases are naturally occurring in the earth and any movement of the plates could have caused this. not saying that that movement wasn't caused by the frac... just saying...
Is there any question now that the world needs to move to clean, sustainable energy technology rather than the big, nasty dark age energy technology? Car makers could have made the switch to clean energy engines long ago if they weren't deep in cahoots with big oil. If Our Gov'ts are willing to subsidize digital TV receivers, they should be willing to subsidize technology that helps save money and the environment.
"As previously stated, this is common and if the property owners don't like the situation, they should consider leaving as they don't have any other options."
Only through reading the comments have I been able to get a grasp of how likely it is that this is EnCana's fault. It appears to me that this *is* likely a result of their drilling, although there is sufficient doubt raised by (for instance) the claim of the person who worked in the area 30 years ago, and saw people burning off water then.
Either way, the person DOES have another option besides moving away. Even if, as you imply (and others dispute), there is no legal recourse (which would be bad, because allowing companies to contaminate people's wells and then telling the people 'too bad you're screwed' is not exactly what a just society should allow) she certainly has recourse to publicize this and damage EnCana's reputation.
If it is their fault, then she is entirely justified in doing this. If her water has always been like this but she's just seizing on the opportunity, then she is an evil person.
But it's hard for those of us who are geographically and intellectually removed from the situation to know for sure which is the case.
crap
wow that is wierd
I don't care what anybody or entity says. The earth is a living being & is finite. The current method of so called "energy" extraction/production what-have-you is money-oriented, not energy oriented. If drilling wasn't happening nearby, then there would be no story. Regardless, ALL the ways which we power our wasteful western lifestyles is not just harmful to the very being which supports our pathetic lives but in the end harmful to all life period. I could care less how many precautions are taken, drilling is toxic.
So you own a company that works with Encana. You could care less what anybody says because you are not interested in the environment much less in energy. You are simply interested in continuing what you yourself would like to do, and that is entirely based on a dollar sign.
Take a firefighter's or a police officer's paycheck away and you are left with someone who could care less.
Really doesn't make sense that a company would spend the money to fracture a non-paying zone. Strange things can and do happen, deep under foot. There's always a chance that nearby exploration and production polluted the water. Generally it's up to the authority with oversight to prove it. In the event it's proven, the producer is responsible for repairing the problem and cleaning up any resulting pollution.
I don't understand why if the gas is a natural occurrence, it wasn't discovered before. I suspect that drilling created a condition that allowed communication between the gas and water formations. The devil is in proving it. Where the authority has declared the gas as naturally occurring, they may not be investigating further
dude
"A company report from 2005, for instance, shows that EnCana fraced the underground aquifer where area landowners get their water" ?!!
What is any company doing exploring near an aquifer? What kind of morons run the Alberta government? How could anyone risk messing up the water supply?
Encana should be responsible for a new water supply for that town. Maybe a class action lawsuit, or a higher court (outside of Alberta) could get some justice?