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Fracking Contamination ‘Will Get Worse’: Alberta Expert
A well-known industry expert in tracking leaking methane from oil and gas wells says a groundbreaking U.S. federal study on hydraulic fracturing highlights not only an old and growing problem, but the need for tighter regulations in the shale gas industry.
“The shale gas boom combined with hydraulic fracking will cause wellbores to leak more often than run-of-the-mill conventional wells,” says Karlis Muehlenbachs, a geochemist at the University of Alberta. “The problem is going to get worse, not better.”
Muehlenbachs, a leading authority on identifying the unique carbon fingerprint or isotopes of shale and conventional gases, says regulators must do better baseline groundwater testing and rigorously check wells for leakage. (Industry calls these leaks surface casing vent flow or sustained casing pressure.)
“The biggest problem is that half or more the wells drilled leak due to improper cement jobs or industry is not following best practices,” adds Muehlenbachs.
Earlier this month the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that EnCana, the continent’s second largest shale gas producer, had contaminated groundwater in Pavillion, Wyoming.
Those findings, which contradict industry assurances, didn’t surprise Muehlenbachs, who has studied leaking wells in Alberta’s heavy oil fields for decades.
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