Fracking under scrutiny
A deep gas well is drilled in Sweet Grass County in 2010.
Deep shale gas development is increasing in Sweet Grass and Park counties in Montana. Northern Plains affiliate Cottonwood Resource Council is monitoring this development. It has sponsored community informational events, as well as a field tour to Wyoming, to help citizens and local officials better understand the on-the-ground impacts of and potential policy and regulatory solutions to deep gas drilling.
One of the main concerns of deep shale drilling is the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. This process involves the pumping of water, toxic chemicals, and synthetic sand under high pressure in order to crack the rock formation that contains the gas. Fracking can lead to water contamination when the natural gas and fluids migrate toward drinking water or are spilled on the surface. Unfortunately, federal law exempts fracking fluids from the Safe Drinking Water Act, meaning that gas drillers don’t have to disclose what chemicals they are using underground. Across the United States, numerous cases of drinking water contamination from hydraulic fracking and natural gas drilling have been documented, but the secrecy surrounding the chemicals makes it very difficult for a water well owner to prove the source of the contamination.
Also, it is good to note that fracturing is just one piece of the entire drilling process and that many wells can have problems at any stage throughout the drilling process. For more information, see the guidelines for disclosure of all oil and gas chemicals put out by Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC).
Board of Oil and Gas Conservation undertakes rule-making
The Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation (BOGC) began public rule-making on hydraulic fracturing disclosure at the end of May. A public hearing was held in in Sidney on June 15. Written comments were due by June 23. About 220 written comments were generated and about 90% of those comments were in favor of public disclosure of fracking chemicals.
At the August 10 BOGC meeting, the board voted to finalize the rules with very little in the way of changes. Trade secret exemptions are still allowed under the current rules.
The final rules and all of the written comments on the fracking rules are online. A transcript of the hearing is also available.
For more information:
Map of Gas Leases in Sweet Grass County
Northern Plains and Cottonwood Resource Council’s official comments
Deep shale gas hydraulic fracturing factsheet
Oil and gas landowner rights factsheet
