Endangered Aquifer - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

GROUNDWATER: Company will compensate owners > Continued from Page One region, which includes the area Gunnison Energy wants to drill, contains 99 trillion cubic feet of methane. Just 10 percent of it is recover- able, according to the U.S. Geolog- ical Survey. Methane is trapped in coal - bearing rock formations under hydrostatic pressure. It is liberat- ed and rises to the surface, like carbonation in a soda bottle, when water is pumped from the coal. Gunnison Energy expects 'ini- tially to pump 100 barrels of wa- ter per day from its exploratory wells northeast of Cedaredge and in two drainages in the North Fork Valley. The water will likely drop off to about 36 barrels per day, based on observations at lo- cal coal mines, Gale said. Coal -bed methane wells in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming have yielded up to 500 barrels of water per day, Gale said. Two geologists who worked in fossil -fuels industries described widely varying opinions on the potential for harm to water re- sources. Gunnison Energy's proposal will likely not affect local springs and water wells, said Bruce Ber- tram, who specialized in hydro- dynamics in the oil and gas in- dustry. Properly designed and con- structed methane wells, which are encased in layers of concrete and steel, will prevent water from intermingling in different rock layers, Bertram said. It will also prevent methane from migrating from the coal seams into water sources, he said. The methane - bearing region runs deep beneath the surface, disconnected from the higher ar- ea where residents are getting their well water, Bertram said. Lazear fears that Gunnison En- ergy's proposal will deplete wells and springs in the region, citing a review by several local geologists. "When you put down 600 wells and start pumping, there's no way not to have an impact on the groundwater," he said. Springs and wells are likely fed by an aquifer that is under high pressure, Lazear said. The four initial test wells will likely not affect the groundwater, but numerous wells under full production may lower the pres- sure, he said. Water could move toward low- pressure zones around methane wells, leaving springs and domestic wells high and dry, he said. The depletion of groundwater could be compounded by "hy- draulic fracturing," Lazear said. Fluid is commonly pushed down into the methane well at high pressure to crack the coal seam. Sand particles in the fluid prop open the new quarter -inch- wide fissures. The process expands a meth- ane well's zone of influence, in- creasing the surface area on the coal and boosting o methane production. "The reality is that very sel- dom is there a problem with frac- turing, because of the tremen- dous amount of research and care taken when they drill the well," Bertram said. Gunnison Energy will design and monitor the fracturing very closely, but Gale could not guar- antee it would not impact ground- water layers. The coal is not limited to one layer, Lazear said. There are up to eight layers of coal intermingling with a sand- stone aquifer that supplies well water for a number of residents, Lazear said. Fracturing those lay- ers will also fracture the aquifer around the well, he said. Methane wells could draw wa- ter directly from cracks in the aquifer, Lazear said. The gas could also contaminate the groundwater by migrating from coal layers into cracks in the aquifer, he said. "There's a concern that we re- ally have to know what's going on in the mountain, and we'd like to know before they start drilling," Lazear said. Lazear and other geologists want baseline measurements of the local hydrology to detect any potential impacts "before they be- come a problem." "The amount of water they have to pump out of wells to re- duce pressure on the coal could be really substantial. It could af- fect springs and domestic water wells, and who is responsible for that water," Lazear said. La Plata County residents have long pointed at coal -bed methane development as the source of wa- ter woes there. Methane gas surfaced there for decades, and perhaps much long- er, before drillers started pump- ing it for use in homes and indus- try. Old- timers remember lighting snowbanks afire on Christmas Day, said Ginger Kinderknecht, a former Durango resident. It got dramatically worse after the coal -bed methane industry emerged there in the early 1980s, she said. Kinderknecht's in -laws in Bay - field had a well-water tap in their house that smelled so prevalently of methane that "you didn't dare light a match in the kitchen when the water was running," she said. Five families lost their homes when drillers got too close to an outcrop of the methane- bearing rock formation south of Durango, La Plata County Commissioner Josh Joswick said. The gas migrated toward the outcrop and into the homes above, instead of out the wells af- ter drillers removed the water, he said. The homes were razed and the families relocated. Methane has never surfaced from two wells near Jerry Mc- Caw's home outside Durango. The coal is much deeper there than where methane is seeping to the surface some 15 miles away, the civil engineer said. "I have a water well less than 250 feet from one (methane) well, and I haven't noticed anything," he said. In 1997, a federal court ordered the U.S. Environmental Protec- tion Agency to regulate hydraulic fracturing in Alabama under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The EPA has launched a two -year study of potential environmental impacts from hydraulic fractur- ing of coal beds for methane pro- duction. Gunnison Energy expects to find relatively low volumes of wa- ter, Gale said. The water will like- ly be treatable for use in irriga- tion or consumption, he said. "We're trying to find some ways that we can make this water usable, that would be a benefit for everybody," Gale said. The company will dispose of water that is too saline for irriga- tion or consumption by evapora- tion or injection below the coal seam. The nearest deep - injection disposal site is in Mesa County near Whitewater. The company has said it will compensate landowners if their wells are drained or contaminat- ed, but they must prove the com- pany was at fault. The Western Slope Environ- mental Resource Council is de- manding studies to establish the current groundwater conditions. The town of Cedaredge is wari- ly eyeing the coal -bed methane proposal. The town has 21 springs and some reservoir storage on Grand Mesa, Mayor Bill Miller said. Those springs, in the grip of a drought, are already down 50 per- cent from last year, he said. But the Town Council will not resist the exploratory wells de- spite heavy public pressure, Mill- er said. "We feel that the gas company has got to do some drilling before we can set any standards. They've got to get some scientific data somewhere," he said. The company is seeking a high level of trust for an untried pro- posal, said Don Foster, who lives on Garvin Mesa near Paonia. "I think what you're proposing to do is pretty bold, because you're proposing to drill up- stream from these people," Foster said. The company has no water rights that it can use to replace lost water if it disturbs wells or springs. "Then how do you propose to replace the water if you disturb our wells? Are you a rainmaker ?" asked Carla Chafee, secretary of Stucker Mesa Water Co., during a recent hearing in Paonia. Gale said he has never encoun- tered problems with drinking wa- ter impacts during his 20 -year ca- reer. "We think that this project can benefit ourselves, this county and our nation. If everybody said we can't take a risk, this wouldn't be the great nation that it is," Gale said.