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Chesapeake Gas Wells May Cause Susquehanna’s Bubbles, State Says
Methane gas detected in the Susquehanna River and at six private water wells probably came from Marcellus Shale wells drilled by Chesapeake Energy Corp., Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection said.
Chesapeake was issued a notice of violation and is working with regulators to determine the source of the gas, the state agency said today in a statement. Regulators received a report of water bubbles in the river on Sept. 2 and a day later learned of water bubbling in private wells in Wilmont Township, Bradford County, according to the statement. The town is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
From December 2009 through March, Chesapeake drilled six wells about 3 miles northwest of the river in the Marcellus Shale, a gas-rich rock formation from New York to West Virginia. New York has banned new drilling in the Marcellus Shale pending studies into potential impacts on water supplies.
“Chesapeake Energy has been working at the direction of DEP to determine the source or sources of the stray gas,” John Hanger, secretary of the state environmental department, said in a statement. “Gas migration is a serious, potentially dangerous problem.”
Shale gas is produced by hydraulic fracturing in which millions of gallons of chemically treated water are forced into wells to break up rock and allow gas to flow. The wells suspected of being the source of the migrating gas haven’t been fractured and aren’t producing gas.
Biogenic methane can form at shallow levels from natural decomposition of organic waste, according to the statement. Thermogenic gas in deeper geologic formations is typically developed commercially.
Company and state regulators took water samples at the gas and drinking wells to fingerprint the methane and determine its source. Results are expected within two weeks.
Chesapeake installed methane monitors, ventilators and has provided drinking water to residents affected by the gas. No one has been evacuated. Since 2008, 1,785 gas wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania’s portion of the Marcellus Shale, according to the DEP website.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at jefstathiou@bloomberg.net.
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