James Schmid, Schmid & Co Natural gas development has continued to expand in states like Pennsylvania and West Virginia, while states like Maryland and New York are proceeding cautiously while trying to gather additional information on environmental, health, and forest and habitat impacts. Development of the industry has left communities dealing with impacts from industrialization to farm and forest land to increased stormwater runoff of sediment from drilling operations, including pipelines, road, and drill pads. This panel will explore the changing landscape in the Chesapeake region in relation to clean water goals and what impacts local communities are experiencing as well sites are developed, roads are built, and pipelines are constructed. The panel will take an in-depth look at pipelines in the region and the siting, regulatory, safety, and environmental aspects to consider when transporting water and natural gas throughout the region.

1. Potential Impacts of
Natural Gas Production and
Transmission
James A. Schmid
Schmid & Co., Inc., Consulting Ecologists
Media, Pennsylvania
5 June 2013

2. Gas must be moved by pipeline, not by truck or rail.
Its extraction and transmission threaten water
resources and people. The industry is minimally
regulated. Shale gas poses a much greater threat
than conventional gas production.
(Post-Production)

8. About 5 acres 10 feet deep---just beneath the
DEP permit threshold. Fresh water is one thing,
returned frackwater from wells, something else.

9. Drilling Water Reservoir – Fresh and/or Return WaterDrilling Water Reservoir – Fresh and/or Return Water

11. Water taken to/from reservoir by pipe or tanker truckWater taken to/from reservoir by pipe or tanker truck

15. This small frackwater pipeline joint failure caused loss of more
than
10,000 gallons of fluid resulting in a fish kill in High Quality Brush
Run
watershed, Washington County, 2009. Damage to fish,

16. Casing leaks =
water pollution

18. Typical Hydrofracturing Fluid
“Slickwater”

20. What Comes Out of a Fracked Well in the Return Water?
1. Chemicals put into the ground in the slickwater mix (varies)
2. Chemicals extracted from the ancient ocean-bottom deposits
Example Concentrations (milligrams/Liter = parts per million)
Chemical Drinking Water Typical PA Typical Marcellus Increase
Standard, USEPA Groundwater Flowback Over Typical
________________________________________________________________
Total
Dissolved
Solids <500 163 67,300 413x
Sodium 7 18,000 2,571x
Chloride <250 5 41,850 8,370x
Bromide 0.016 445 27,813x

22. Old, abandoned wells
may be intercepted and
allow escape
of fracking fluid, as in
this geyser (2012).

24. Well pad fire, Avela PA, February 2011

25. Bradford County, Pennsylvania

28. Gathering Line Crossing Wetlands

31. Compressor stations push
gas along the pipes.

33. Detailed Plans Exist Only
for Big Interstate Pipelines

35. Pipelines Cross Steep Slopes and Cause Erosion

36. Welding is Critical
for Pipeline Safety

38. SCRANTON
TIMES-TRIBUNE
Few spills
make news.

39. Pennsylvania waives
regulation of obstructions
and encroachments in
streams draining fewer
than 100 acres.
That’s more than half the
land area in the
Commonwealth.

41. 952 “serious” violations of PADEP regulations at shale
gas
wells by 43 drillers over a 30-month period, 2008-

42. Shale Gas Development in Pennsylvania
Prepared by Clean Water Action

46. Smaller diameter,
Lower pressure
Pipes

47. Retail Gas Distribution
Meters

48. Roadside Retail Distribution Gas Meters, Butler County PA

49. Fire from the buildup of gas from a distribution line leak
in a private home.

50. In this incident of pipeline failure there was no fire or explosion. The
crater was created by the pressure of the gas coming out. A section of
pipe was hurled into the right background area of the photograph.

51. Appomattox, Virginia, Pipeline Fire, 2008

52. Appomattox, Virginia, 2008

53. Interstate Transmission Pipe Corrosion, Appomattox VA, 2008

54. Eight persons dead, 58 injured, 38 homes destroyed, 70 damaged in this
incident in San Bruno, California, 10 September 2010. The 30-inch pipe-
line was 62 years old and operated at 365 psig pressure (MAOP 400)
on the day of rupture. Nearly 48 million cubic feet of gas were released.

55. Potential Impacts of
Natural Gas Production and
Transmission
James A. Schmid
Schmid & Co., Inc., Consulting Ecologists
Media, Pennsylvania
5 June 2013

59. Enbridge Kalamazoo, Michigan, Dilbit Spill, 2010
Cleanup Cost approaching $1 billion