Flowback

Flowback is the wastewater produced by each and every fracking well all over the US (and other countries as well).  Fracking for natural gas is popping up all over the country, but the Marcellus shale drilling is of a particular concern for me because it's nearby, affects my drinking water, structural safety of my home and surrounding infrastructure, and what I've read about the most. 

These frack well sites can use an estimated 2-9 million gallons of fluid (mostly water) per well head is needed for one horizontal drill and 10-20 wellheads are found on each, taking about 5 acres of land per drill pad.  Frack fluid is injected into a well and roughly 1/2 of the flowback returns to the surface with the extracted natural gas/oil. 

The Marcellus Shale is known to contain natural gas and oil, but also "toxic metals, salts, and radionuclides" (Kargbo, Wilhelm, & Campbell, 2010) which are remnants from the Devonian age trapped in this geological formation.  Kargbo, Wilhelm, & Campbell (2010) go on to say that "...Devonian-age shales contain naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), such as uranium (U)and thorium (Th) and their daughter products, 226Ra and 228Ra". 

In the Marcellus Shale area, there are not many injection wells available to dispose of the frack fluid (because of sub-surface instability from what, I'm not sure but can assume it has something to do with intensive natural gas/oil/coal extraction), so we rely heavily on wastewater treatment facilities which poses a bigger challenge to this area on how to keep these hazardous materials out of drinking water.  Needless to say, the industry is racing head-long into the unknown--aka ignoring and/or investing in sound science and research to prevent long-term pollution and expensive clean-up/remediation costs of fresh water drinking sources (costs which will be placed squarely on the shoulders of the tax payers through future Superfund sites requiring clean-up). 

Since there is no way with modern technology to bring only the natural gas/oil to the surface, the NORM, toxic metals and salts are brought to the surface in the flowback, too, along with the industry's secret cancer-causing additives to make the natural gas/oil flow out of the shale easier.  The flowback is transported to wastewater treatment facilities then expelled into surface streams, rivers, and watersheds where toxins can migrate into wells and aquifers.  This introduces technologically enhanced NORM (TENORM) into the surface environment.  In other words, the industry is taking NORM and other harmful stuff that was sequestered underground (several hundred million years ago) during/after the Devonian age and bringing it back to the surface environment to contaminate fresh water systems that the general population and wildlife need to survive. 

By the EPAs own admission, "many [wastewater treatment facilities] are not properly equipped to treat this type of wastewater", but the EPA plans to have a "proposed rule" in place by 2014 to ensure drinking water safety.  The EPA is also "evaluating industrial practices" of the design, operation, maintenance, and closure of holding pits and ponds that hold the flowback before it is transported to a wastewater facility and/or reused for fracking. 

Until I researched flowback, I wasn't aware that any company reused frack fluid although reuse is dependant on "levels of pollutants" and the proximity to a well that could reuse this fluid.  I would hope the industry would consider to use it on the other 9 to 19 wellheads on the same 5-acre pad as many times as they can so we can save a little water for minor uses like drinking and/or bathing :)