Environment problems and safety concerns

(1) Water Demand

Hydraulic fracturing technology which is used in gas production requires up to 5 million gallons
of fresh water per lateral. Therefore, water management should be properly managed in a form of
collaboration with regional water planning agencies in the industry to avoid any problem in the
worlds arid regions.
(2) Potential Contaminants to water
Spillage and leakage of defective well casings can lead to groundwater contamination through the
surface route. It is also possible to have fluid leakage during the rock formations between the
targeted shale and shallow freshwater aquifer, but the possibility is at a lower rate.
Wastewater resulted from the hydraulic fracturing causing proppant, chemicals and contamination
from the contact with the shale rocks. Normally, wastewater can be treated by these following
methods: recycling, injection, treatment, and evaporation. However, a failure to inject wells where
that is the disposal method causes water contamination. Moreover, in some cases, wastewater will
be illegally dumped into surface water without proper treatment.
(3) Land
Lands used to produce shale gas cannot be used for habitat or vegetation. Therefore, it leads to the
destruction of vegetation and further erosion.
(4) Greenhouse effect
The production of shale gas causes a large amount of methane, a major contribution to global
warming, during the flowback period. Flowback period refers to the time when the fracturing fluid
is evaporated to the surface bringing along the freshly-fractured shales natural gas.
If the natural gas is burned or flared, it converts from methane to carbon dioxide, which is also a
greenhouse gas. Recently, the technologies used to capture the emerging gas at the wellhead is
called Reduced Emission Completions (REC). Apart from deteriorating the greenhouse gas, it can
generate revenues from selling the captured natural gas.
(5) Noise
During the production process, traffic, processing units and compressors in the construction site
creates loud noise.
(6) Seismic Activity
Seismicity activity is the small earthquake in a certain area that may happen during the hydraulic
fracturing in which the fractures are produced in the shale. Despite of the negative meaning, seismic
activity is useful to operators as seismic cloud which is recorded by special equipment helps
characterising the spatial extend of the created hydrofacture. By being able to estimate the amount
of the reservoir that has been fractured, it increases the shales permeability and the natural gas
stream to the production casing.
On the other hand, the seismic event can become a threat when it exceeds a certain magnitude. It
endangers human security, the environment and infrastructure for instance shale gas production and
operating equipment. As a result, seismic events have been monitored and prompted to investigate.
Technology developed in geothermal energy production helps reducing the risk of induced
seismicity. Nevertheless, the practices that avoid underground stress field and mechanical properties
of the rocks present is still limited making the risk management a challenging task.
References:
the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. . (). What are the risks?. Available:
http://www.shale-gas-information-platform.org/what-are-the-risks.html. Last accessed 28 May
2014.
Theodore A. Feitshans . (2011 ). Environmental and Safety Issues Associated with Shale Gas
Production . Available: http://lee.ces.ncsu.edu/files/library/53/EnvironmentalIssues
_Feitshans_2011.pdf. Last accessed 28 May 2014.