Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In some parts of the UK the areas likely to be exploited for shale gas are
overlain by significant aquifers used for drinking water supply and for
supporting baseflow to rivers. The vulnerability of groundwater (and the
wider water environment) to shale gas operations must therefore be taken
very seriously.
Groundwater may potentially be contaminated by extraction of shale gas,
both from the constituents of shale gas itself, from the hydraulic fracturing
fluids, from flowback/produced water which may have a high content of
saline formation water, or from drilling operations.
A rigorous assessment of the risks is required and appropriate risk man-
agement strategies need to be developed and implemented if the industry is
to become established. It is likely that, due to environmental sensitivities,
there will be some locations that shale gas exploitation will be considered
unacceptable. To what extent this may affect the economic viability of the
industry is unknown. In fact, there are very many unknowns as we are at the
preliminary stages of exploration.
Because we are still at a very early stage we can take advantage of this and
ensure that progress is made in a controlled way. We must identify and
understand the risks to groundwater from shale gas and establish a fully
informed risk management strategy for the industry. Experience from the
United States has illustrated what can go wrong if this is ignored. We must
not look back in 20-30 years and regret not taking the actions we have the
opportunity to take now.
References
1. I. J. Andrews, The Carboniferous Bowland Shale Gas Study: Geology and
Resource Estimation, British Geological Survey for Department of Energy
& Climate Change, London, UK, 2013.
2. R. C. Selley, Geol. Soc. Petrol. Geol. London Conf. Series, 2005, 6,
707-714.
3. N. Smith, P. Turner and G. Williams, Geol. Soc. Petrol. Geol. London Conf.
Series, 2010, 7, 1087-1098.
4. T. Harvey and J. Gray, The Unconventional Hydrocarbon Resources of
Britain's Onshore Basins - Shale Gas, Department of Energy & Climate
Change, 2010; www.og.decc.gov.uk/UKpromote/onshore_paper/UK_
onshore_shalegas.pdf (last accessed 26/03/2014).
5. R. B. Jackson, A. Vengosh, T. H. Darrah, N. R. Warner, A. Down, R. J.
Poreda, S. G. Osborn, K. Zhao and J. D. Karr, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.,
2013, 110, 11250-11255.
6. British Geological Survey, Baseline Methane Survey of UK Groundwaters,
2013; http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/groundwater/quality/methane_
baseline_survey.html (last accessed 26/3/2014).
7. S. J. Mathers, R. L. Terrington, C. N. Waters and A. G . Leslie, GB3D: a
framework for the bedrock geology of Great Britain, Geosci. Data J., 2014;
doi: 10.1002/gdj3.9.
