Gas Well Study

Yesterday, Molly and I took a break (sort of a break, anyway) and hiked in the Amherst Plymouth Wildlife Management Area that’s just north of Bancroft. We were there last year looking at wells and this year we did the same, though the hike was a lot longer.

The Wildlife Management Area has lots of roads (mostly to service the large number of gas wells within its boundaries), but normally the entrance gate is locked and vehicles are prohibited (except the well service vehicles). This time there was a lot of activity. Cabot is drilling a very deep well just east, up on the ridge, from the UIC well we looked at last year. Very deep means 14,000 feet or more deep. A Marcellus well in the area is relatively shallow, less than 5,000 feet.

The rig was up and trucks were going back and forth, though not an unusually large amount of traffic. The company doing the actual drilling is Sidewinder Drilling of Houston. They are using a closed loop system so there are no pits – large trucks were being filled with cuttings when we were there. The cuttings will be going to a solid waste facility that can accept that kind of waste.

The photo was taken when we were about 2,000 feet from the drill site.

We looked at wells, examined sediment controls, did our usual thing, but what I remember best is standing in a field which had several different kinds of flowers on tall stalks, they were almost chest high. Looking up I could see a large number of dragonflies overhead.

The 2013 Gas Well Study is now available. Last year we one of our focuses was Underground Injection Control (UIC) class 2 wells used to dispose of oil and gas waste. We have a section on our website devoted to UIC class 2 documents for 5 wells in West Virginia.

This is a photo of UIC class 2 well in Kanawha county by Tupper’s Creek (47-039-02210). The tall tank in the photo is able to hold 57,000 gallons of waste. This well has been used since the 1980s to dispose of natural gas and pipeline waste. When we visited in April 2013 there was a strong objectionable odor. The permit requires vapor recovery units for the tanks (there is the large tank and two smaller tanks). There is nothing in the well’s file at the Office of Oil and Gas to show that the tanks actually have vapor recovery units.

This UIC class 2 well is in the Amherst Plymouth Wildlife Management Area (47-079-01452). It has all the physical features we want to see at a UIC class 2 well site but are not at all common in West Virginia — cement lined unloading area with curbs/berms to contain spills; the six large tanks sit within cement lined secondary containment; a pressure gauge on the wellhead and another pressure gauge for the annulus; and good site security including a fence and a locked gate. Besides the physical features we want to see an agency (in West Virginia it’s the Office of Oil and Gas) that enforces compliance, again something that isn’t happening in West Virginia.

We looked at other wells, including this vertical shale gas well in the Amherst Plymouth Wildlife Management Area (47-079-01324). This Google Earth view gives a good impression of the site — poorly vegetated with severe erosion of the fill slope. Like other wells in the WMA this site’s condensate storage tank doesn’t have secondary containment as required by law.

There are photos of well sites and other information about last year’s project available on our website. We’ll be writing more about UIC wells and other topics. One of this year’s project is a set of proposed workshops. We’ll keep you posted.