Tuesday
Aug062013
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill The full horror of shale gas extraction
Aug 6, 2013 Energy: gas The Mail was briefly leading on shale again this morning although the story has been shunted down since. The only new development is that someone has taken a photo of the Balcombe site from the air. The Mail captions the photo "concrete carbuncle", but to me it's astonishing just how small the site is and how little concrete is involved.
Obviously, once the drilling is complete, the full horror of a shale gas well will be revealed...
;)
From here.
Postscript: I wonder who wrote the Mail article?
Reader Comments (53)
Given that it is on the roadside in full view of the passing public the protest looks more of an eyesore.
Amazing how the horrible, evil completed shale gas well spoils the beautiful, natural environment of...a manufactured golf course and sports field complex with enormous floodlights.
Bet the land owners get good rental, and at the eyeline height of the golfers, it probably just looks like a fence.
The mail article states:
"But residents from Balcombe have made it clear they are opposed to any such thing.
More than 30 campaigners, including the daughter of singers Chrissie Hynde and Ray Davies, have been arrested after clashes with police outside the site."
These people live in Balcome or are they part of the "rent-a-crowd" from the Green Taliban!
Disgusting.
According to the paper version of the DM the authors are Nick McDermott and Tim Shipman.
http://journalisted.com/nick-mcdermott#tab-bio No bio info for Nick McDermott
On Twitter he describes himself as Science and Environment Reporter for the Daily Mail.
http://www.timshipman.co.uk/journalism/biography Deputy Political Editor for the Daily Mail
The presentation from which the picture is taken is well worth a read, a model of sensible regulation and monitoring and rational behaviour. The section on water quality is especially good, slide 35 gives us the following points about local water quality:
• No incident of groundwater contamination due to gas drilling or
disposal operations has been confirmed within the Barnett Shale
area (Texas Joint Groundwater Monitoring and Contamination Report)
• Biggest impacts to groundwater quality in Texas:
- Overuse (due to population growth in rural areas)
- Drought
- Improperly installed and cased water wells
-- Unlicensed water well drillers
Note the risk to groundwater contamination in Texas from Improperly installed and cased water wells!
The following slide 36 should be pinned on the fridge door of all those who worry about water supply contamination from shale gas. The UK situation would not be dissimilar to this picture.
What I want to know is... is it a dropped shot if you land in the frack?
Again from the Mail article
"But Craig Bennett, of Friends of the Earth, said: ‘Fracking poses a real threat to the local environment and causes more climate-wrecking pollution. ‘It’s little wonder communities across the country, including the Tory shires, are mobilising against it.’
Or are these places going to be visited by the "Rent-a-Crowd!?
Craig Bennett is a contributor to the Guardian - "He has a BSc (Hons) in Human and Physical Geography and an MSc in Biodiversity Conservation. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). "
Well I suppose it is better than having an English degree!
Concern over water contamination is probably misplaced in somewhere like Balcombe. It would be interesting to know if any of the households have their own borehole supply.
A good article in today's "i" pointing out the long industrial history of that part of the country. A few miles away there is a gypsum mine which uses drill & blast techniques about 300m underground. It has been there since the late 1800s - imagine if they were to try to build it now.
Is that the fracking hole they are trying to get their little white ball into - - ? Disgusting!
What an eye-sore the campaigners make. But I don't see Balcombe in the photos?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6QilY51xFA
Any body on here driven down from London to Southanpton
Remember the battle of Twyford Down even David Bellemy was there.
If these protest turn violent then that's a direct challenge to Government Authority and they will act.
The occupy camp was outside St Pauls for months because the Church of England privately supported then untill it came to the Vote on Gay Marriage and then they soon cleared them out.
As for the Residents of Middle England Balcombe its all disruption and camera crews whether drilling for oil or building a new McDonalds or a new Tescos Sainsburiy superstore.
Oh Fracking scary : NOT ! It's the new MMR
- I saw the photo when mikeh posted that Texas link yesterday, He said
"The realities of shale and fracking based largely on experience in the Fort Worth area. There are some very strong points:
~ Nearly 1700 producing wells within Fort Worth city, out of c.19,000 in the whole Barnett Shale
~ Pics of drill sites (pages 14, 15, etc) show how RUINED the countryside was afterwards "
I add a note of caution it seems truthful but it is the oil companies presentation and I would guess there is a scar activist presentation to counter it
- Re : Anti-fracking campaigners : Are we a country where we let small minority group and businesses taking huge Eco-subsidies decide energy policy?
Philip - the photo is from a presentation made to Dallas City Council a year ago. Clicking the link in the article will let you enjoy the whole thing - it's a model of its type.
The photograph is of a part of Hidden Springs Golf Club in Burleson, Texas, adjacent to the well head.
If you search Google maps for South Dobson Street, Burleson, you can see an overhead view. The photograph appears to have been taken at the south western corner of the course, with one of a pair of bunkers visible behind the players and four squat cylindrical structures in line nearly abreast in front.
I wonder if in earlier era the protesters would have protested the building of Balcombe tunnel, Balcome viaduct and Ardingly reservoir.
Phillip Bratby,
From the picture in the mail article with a caption that begins "Green and pleasant land" Balcombe would be visible if the photographer turned 180 degrees. The site is roughly 600m south of the edge of the village.
While working out how to appropriate most of the revenue, why doesn't the government just rule that, for each well, let's say, 0.25% of the value of the extracted gas is distributed between everyone within 800 yards of the well.
"It's a dreadful blight on our lovely village".
"We'll give you £200 per year it operates".
"Actually, now that I think about it, from the right angle it's quite attractive".
Re: "But Craig Bennett, of Friends of the Earth, said: ‘Fracking poses a real threat to the local environment and causes more climate-wrecking pollution. ‘It’s little wonder communities across the country, including the Tory shires, are mobilising against it.’
With all the wood to be burned at Drax, we are now seeing entire forests leveled in North Carolina, and soon elsewhere, to feed UK's "renewables" mandate. I wonder what FOE (US branch) will say at the destruction of huge ecosystems by clear cutting, vs. the small footprint of fracking seen above.
Or maybe enviros care only about their own environment, others be damned? Better said, they appear unaware of the effects of their actions.
This may have been posted before but this report, commissioned by Balcombe Parish Council, is a model of objective assessment:
http://balcombeparishcouncil.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/the-fracking-report.pdf
Unfortunately it has obviously been swamped by the tsunami of activist scare-mongering. Either that, or the protesting residents have not read the report and/or chosen to disregard it.
I had a fun time looking at the Mail photos and playing 'guess the undercover police officers' :-)
Love the image of the protestor in the orange chair holding one of his cigarettes over the dry grass!
Picture captioned "More than 30 campaigners....".
The site looks very well managed and very tidy and is well hidden (no pun intended). The noise from the site is probably very low and does not disturb anyone.
Anyone who visits London will be well aware of the major construction sites for Crossrail, close to Oxford Street, Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road. Of course there has been disruption, but did it deter visitors coming for the Olympics or tourists in general. Does it have a major disruption on the commercial life of London? No.
So where the hell are the ******ing Eco Fascist demonstrators?
The problem with any kind of mining is that the waste rock (tailings) often leaches toxic materials into any water that comes in contact with it (and its hard to keep water away from anything on the surface). On the other hand, surface rocks and permeable areas have been washed by precipitation for millions of years and living things have evolved to thrive in the water that leaches from them. The beauty of fracking is that most of the waste rock remains deep underground. The water that leaches from fracked rock underground is probably just as hazardous as the water that leaches from mine tailings and it is mixed by the natural gas bubbling through it. The most vulnerable place in the system appears to be the casings where the well passes through aquifers that are used for drinking water and irrigation. These vulnerable locations in your aquifers could exist for hundreds of years after the natural gas runs out. Regulate carefully, especially how a well will be closed. Be sure to get the closure money escrowed upfront: If experience from the mining industry is any guide, wells will be sold to shell companies with no assets as production drops and decommissioning costs grow. Do it right and enjoy nature's bounty! You could have a network of these wells every few miles apart honeycombed by horizontal drilling everywhere in a productive layer of shale.
There is a lot of noise about the "toxic chemicals" used in proprietary fracking fluids. It is easy to test these chemicals and all materials are "toxic" at some concentration. I'd be far more worried about what leaches into the fracking fluid than what is deliberately put into it.
Those things are terrible. They change the landscape; affect wildlife; use huge amounts of water; divide communities and all so the rich can enjoy their pampered lifestyle… oh, you were talking about fracking? I thought you were talking about golf courses ;-)
Marcellus shale - now the largest natural gas play in the US. http://www.shaleenergylawblog.com/oil-gas/marcellus-shale-now-largest-gas-play-in-the-us-ihs-reports/
Check out the visual impact here: http://www.geoexpro.com/article/The_Marcellus_Shale/64251789.aspx
Isn't it amusing how the sort of people the Guardian likes to call "nimbies" when they're objecting to wind turbines are suddenly heroes if it's frakking they're objecting to?
"Disgusting".
Exactly all that extra money were paying on fuel bills being frittered away on golf courses and other leisure facilities. Disgusting!
I want a refund or maybe a free membership if they have a reasonable clubhouse.
I like the way the article complains about noise when the site is right next to a railway line.
Frank
I'm not sure what you are on about:
I guess this could be classified as toxic, with gas and steam bubbling out, and sulphur precipitating. The water draining from this area is pH 1.5 sulphuric acid, and the temperature is about 35C. If it was in the UK, I suppose the area would be closed as a health hazard. As its in Japan it's an ideal place to bathe outdoors. The water feels a little waxy, but its excellent for fixing up any irritating little skin infections.
Tinyco2: Loved it!! (Thought you were talking about golf courses.....) :-)
And when all the shouting and palaver is over this is what will be left: http://vps.templar.co.uk/Energy%20pictures/Wellhead.jpg
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/10226138/Thousands-expected-at-Climate-Camp-in-Balcombe.html
Oh dear, I the hapless residents of Balcombe are going to be occupied. It'll be just like a huge squat. They'll wish they'd kept their mouths shut over the fracking.
Here's a Google Earth file for the drill site: http://www.oview.co.uk/balcombe-drilling-site.kmz (you'll need to have Google Earth installed to use the file).
The site is about half a mile south of the southern edge of the village, sandwiched between the B2036 (appears to be one of the main access roads for Balcombe) and the London-Brighton raliway line. Balcombe itself is only about 5 miles from Crawley and 7 miles from Gatwick Airport.
The drilling site is approx 50m by 85m, ie 4,250 square metres or just over 1 (one!) acre.
Words fail me.
Here is a frack doc from balcombe parish council:
http://balcombeparishcouncil.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/the-fracking-report.pdf
This is the site on google maps:
51.047586,-0.132288
The Telegraph reports that The CO-OP is financing these protestors. So much for their 'concern' for the poor!!
I suggest that if you bank with them no is the time to change banks (Oh and don't let them bury you either!).
is that odd shaped sand bunker natural & where are the wild flower meadows ?
thankfully Greenpea are on the case & Moonbat will rewild this area (no mammoths though)
I grew up with shale bings all around, was part of the landscape, nature soon covered them in green & I had great adventures on them as a kid (35-40 yrs ago).
compare the site pic to any supermarket car park in the UK & weep at this nonsense.
If the Greens can't shut down the well with these protests, I expect they will take a mulligan and try again.
What noise is there from a fracking well? As I understand it the drilling of the well takes around 2-3 days and that's it the well then produces gas for anything from 5 - 40 years. Many wells can be drilled from one site, say, 40 this represents around a maximum of 120 days fracking and that's it.
As of 2010 I understand there were 2.4million fracking sites in the US, if they pose a serious environmental problem we would surely be aware of it by now.
@geronimo
The compressor stations can be quite noisy, and a couple of stories high. There's also the gas-tanker traffic.
Anonym and others:
I understood that they are drilling for conventional oil at Balcome.
anonym
The windmills are also noisy and closer to 30 storeys high. Also you need many, many more of them and two-thirds of the time they don't work.
It's simple: do you want reliable affordable energy or do you not?
In this case, as ssat says, the whole question is irrelevant. Cuadrilla are drilling a conventional test bore for oil.
My overall impression is that, once the wells on a site are completed and in production, the site is very unobtrusive and just becomes part of the background. We are used to these things: when did you last notice an electricity substation, telephone exchange or water pumphouse? Many towns and villages have a sewage works within their bounds, un-noticed and unremarked.
It is strange that people seem happy with the Humbly Grove Oilfield in Hampshire (http://www.humblyenergy.co.uk) which is now converted into a gas storage facility.
It is similar to Cuadrilla's facility but no one seems to mind there!
anonym -
"The compressor stations can be quite noisy, and a couple of stories high."
Presume those are frack compressors you refer to? Yet it is an unfracked drill for oil. Even so, they would be below the tree line and 1km from southern edge of Balcombe.
"There's also the gas-tanker traffic."
Repeat - it's a drill for oil. London road skirts Balcombe and runs straight to the M23. Anticipated vehicle numbers would be interesting. I wonder if the site has the potential/capability to justify a rail siding? Or a small pipeline out to a loading facility? Lots easy access land near the M23. Even if they did go for gas there I guess the same arguments would apply? Anybody got any facts/numbers? How would traffic flow/impacts compare to nighttime restocking runs to supermarkets?
anonym: "The compressor stations can be quite noisy, and a couple of stories high."
Do you have a citation for that, the working fracking wells I've seen are about as big as a family garage at the head. As for the gas tankers coming and going that won't start until there's gas flowing will it?
The HTML source for the page lists Nick Mcdermott and Tim Shipman as the authors. Also, and rather oddly, searching the Daily Mail site for the headline of the article brings up one result - the article - and names the authors, but they do not appear on the article itself.
mikeh,
If you had to hide them I suppose a variety of pretend follies would do. Prefabricated structure or something knocked up on site, it wouldn't need to be brick or stone but could be made to superficially resemble something solid and ornate.
The traffic issue is covered in the report to Balcombe council (already referenced several times): the extra vehicles did not look significant compared to the daily volume.
If they find oil, the site could end up like the other little ones nearby which have been pumping for a couple of decades. They fill a tanker once every couple of days.
If they were to find gas, I don't think it can be transported by tanker unless it is liquefied and that would not be economic. There are companies offering very small gas-to-liquids plants which would produce fuel, mainly diesel.
However there is likely to be a gas main not far away which would be the easiest and cheapest solution by far.
Likewise any water requirements could probably be piped in.
This is where our "densely populated" land is actually a help for fracking. Utility infrastructure is likely to be in place nearby.
Gareth; that is what is often done by other industries in areas of great aesthetic sensitivity. You can buy GRP kiosks which, from any distance, look like small stone buildings. In this case it looks as if it will be screened by hedges and trees anyway.
A truly great photo.
One could run an ad showing this compared to the windmills. The windmill green would be littered with sorts of dead flying things with the golfers wearing gov approved ear protectors and an extra caddy ready to save them from an explodying windmill. Special hazard rules for playing windmill sites.
Re disguising well heads:
Near Clare, where there has been an almighty fight over a wind turbine application, there is a phone mast disguised as a dead tree. The world, my masters, has gone mad. Maybe the phone company can sue.
JF