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Read other letters about this article
Oil and Gas Production areas are messy - that is no question, but the "messy part" normally occurs when the well is drilled - or when it is reworked - otherwise is it a pipe sticking out of the ground - that should not be leaking. So - if you want to bitch about the "hazardous chemicals" then pay attention when the initial work is done - and make them clean up the area.
But as in the other letter - the ignorance displayed by the person writing the article is truly sad. You drill a hole in the ground and you put pipe down the hole. When you get to the level of the oil or gas formation - you blow holes through the sides of the pipe to let the natural pressure in the formation push the gas up to the surface. If you have holes in your pipe in other places - you lose pressure and product.
When the "tight" formation noted in the article recloses itself - they fracture - frac the rock by pumping chemicals into the rock to push it apart to let the gas or oil flow again - but that happens at the layer where the oil is - not everywhere along the well. It would have been nice to have had a few facts here too - like if the water was 750 feet deep - how deep was the gas? I am sure it was several thousand - far from the water layer.
Gas and Oil rarely occur near water formations - if they were as close as suggested in this article - then why was the water not already contaminated by the higher pressure hydrocarbons? - remember the benzene natural contamination a few years ago with Perrier water? The only way that you contaminate a formation with chemicals is if the drilling spud cuts through a water layer and you force some of the cutting mud into the rock - but no one loses that much mud when you drill.
I would bet that the most likely situation here is that someone got rid of the drilling mess by pumping it underground in a shallow well - that could contaminate surface water a lot more easily. But that is an enforcement issue - and subject to the laws of the state.
Final thought - Halliburton is one of the main companies in the oil business - they supply a lot of chemicals and crews that do a lot of hard work to supply the oil and gas you use. And they have been doing it for a long time. The cheap shot in this article at them shows the agenda of the author - as cheap as the level of knowledge displayed about the drilling business.
