hard evidence that this is a significant problem, fracking related to ground- water contamination.”
While it would be appropriate to ensure that current industry practices are protective of groundwater, the evidence suggests drilling activities including fracking are not harming the system, Parker said.
“If you look at the L.A. Basin, there are lots of oil wells down there; I don’t know how many thousand. Is there significant groundwater contami- nation? No,” he said. “With all those wells, do you think if there was a prob- lem, we’d be seeing an indication of it? I think the answer is probably yes.” In a paper presented at the sym-
posium, Managing Groundwater in Los Angeles With Oil and Gas Production and Fracking, Johnson with WRD noted that the fracking occurring in California is not the same as what’s occurred in other parts of the nation. “The geology of the hydrocarbon zones in the Los Angeles Basin is very different from the tight gas shale in the central-east coast so it is not expected that unconventional recovery methods such as high pressure fracking for natural gas extraction will occur here,” he wrote. “But conventional fracking reportedly does occur to some extent (not well documented), and although it has been done for decades and uses much less pressure and fluids and chemicals than unconventional frack- ing, due to the heightened awareness of fracking nationwide, it will likely be more closely monitored by regulatory agencies here.”
When talking about fracking it is important to differentiate between underground injections intended to crack open rock and other processes Parker said.
“Hydraulic fracturing injection is short-term and involves large amounts of equipment and compres- sors to achieve pressures great enough to exceed the strength of the geologic formation and crack or fracture it,” Parker said. “Specifically for the oil and gas industry, injection also applies to enhanced oil recovery where steam
September/October 2012
or carbon dioxide is injected at lower pressures to physically loosen and chemically react with the oil deposits and loosen them, injection of water to replace oil removed to avoid land subsidence and deep injection of waste fluids for disposal. With about 25,000 injection wells in the state, oil compa- nies do a lot of injection.” Most of the fracking mixture is
comprised of benign materials – water, sand and even instant coffee and walnut husks in some cases. The re- maining element, less than 5 percent, is a closely-guarded formula of chemicals designed to facilitate the conveyance process and maintain the oil’s integrity. Oil service companies are reluctant to disclose too much information about what they use for fear of losing a com- petitive advantage. “Generally, industry won’t describe which petroleum distillates are used,” said Nickolaus.
Informal evidence suggests that a majority of the oil wells in the state “may be fracked,” according to a Senate committee analysis of AB 972 by Assemblywoman Betsy Butler, D-Marina Del Rey, the fracking moratorium bill that was shelved in the Senate Aug.16. Those wells exist in Kern, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and Monterey counties. While well casing failures “are known to occur … argu- ably, it is difficult to specify or regulate design criteria … when all the condi- tions the casing is exposed to [such as fracking] are not known,” the analysis of AB 972 says.
The lack of transparency about fracking has been identified as an obstacle by those seeking a better understanding of its impact on water resources.
“Most significantly, a lack of credible and comprehensive data and information is a major impediment to identify or clearly assess the key water-related risks associated with hydraulic fracturing and to develop sound policies to minimize those risks,” says a June report by the Pacific Institute, Hydraulic Fracturing and Water
Watch an explanation of steam injection in Kern County, www.chevron.com