Flaring the

Faucet:
The Marcellus
Insert Photo Here Shale Gas
Rush

November 4, 2009

Deborah Goldberg, Managing

Attorney
Earthjustice, Northeast Office
Marcellus and Utica Shales
Development of Horizontal Wells
Three stages of
development:
• Drilling
• Stimulation (hydraulic
fracturing)
Hydraulic
• Production fracturing:
• 2.4-7.8 million gallons of
water/well
• 0.5-2% (12,000-156,000
gallons)
chemical additives
• 30-70% recovery of flowback
Typical Well Site

Well pad
Water pit
Waste pit:
• Drilling muds and

• Flowback
• Produced water

Access roads
Pipelines Marcellus shale drill site in Upshur County, West Virginia.
Source: France, David. “The Catskills Gas Rush.” New York Magazine. 21 September 2008. 23 October 2008
Groundwater: Methane Intrusion
AP/Judith Kohler

Dimock, PA

Walsenburg, CO
REUTERS/Tim Shaffer
 Surface Water: Dunkard Creek

Ben Adducchio, WV Public Broadcasting

• 38 miles

• High TDS

• Golden algae

• Death of an entire ecosystem

West-of-Hudson
Watershed

• 1.1 billion gallons/day

• 90% of water supply for

9,000,000 people—half of
New York State’s
population

• Unfiltered water

• $2 billion spent to protect

supply

• Filtration cost: $10-20

billion

• Not off limits to gas

development
Natural Gas Wells in Chautauqua County, NY

• 4,403 wells through 2009

• 40-80-acre spacing
(8-16 well pads per square
mile)

• 2008 legislation: 640-acre

spacing
(1 well pad with up to 10
wells
per square mile)
Landscape Impacts: Allegheny National Forest, PA

Photo: Allegheny Defense Project

 Air Impacts: What You Don’t See . . .

Photographs by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

• Pits, trucks, compressors, pipelines

• Greenhouse gas emissions
• Particulate emissions
• Ozone – lethal even in low doses over time
• No regional ozone impact analysis in DSGEIS
Hydrau
Light Pollution
Community Character Impacts

“This well is being drilled as this

is sent to you. My property sits
175' from the well and my home
is 250' feet away!!  Due to
mandatory pooling or forced
pooling, which is allowed in Ohio,
this disaster is happening
against my will. All that I have
worked for my whole life, to
provide a SAFE and HEALTHY
environment for my family is
being snatched from us.”

Louie Chodkiewicz and Family

8540 Wyatt Rd., Broadview Hts.,
OH
March 25, 2009