A new gas rush is taking place in the Great Lakes State.

The huge potential for natural gas reserves that are embedded in Collingwood and Utica shale led to a record-setting state lease sale in the northern Lower Peninsula last spring of 2010, with more sales taking place in late October 2010.  

The technique for extracting this gas is called hydraulic fracturing, or Hydrofracking.  The process involves the high-pressure injection of a mixture of water, chemicals, and sand into fissures in the shale, widening the fissures sufficiently to extract the gas.  While this general technique has been used for many years in Michigan Antrim shale drilling, its use in the Collingwood/Utica deposits introduces new concerns:

• These deposits are much deeper – 9500 feet, compared to 1000-2000 feet for the Antrim shale, and they will involve horizontal drilling.
• The drilling will require much larger volumes of water (millions of gallons), and the process is exempt from the requirement for Michigan water withdrawal permits.
• A broad list of chemicals, many of them toxic, are added to the water as part of the process.  The drilling companies consider the exact mixes as proprietary and currently are not required to make them public.
• The wastewater flow back for the process includes these chemicals, plus naturally occurring dissolved chemicals including hydrocarbons and heavy metals.  These are disposed of in injection wells and, as fluids designated as oil and gas waste, they have less protective requirements, and the wells are exempt from local zoning.
• Variation in local hydrogeology and the potential for spills and leaks add to the uncertainty.  Incidents of surface and groundwater contamination have been reported in other states, including Pennsylvania, New York, and Colorado.
• Due to an exemption negotiated and approved under the Bush administration, the EPA is prohibited from regulating hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Looking forward in the short term

Last spring the EPA announced that under direction from Congress it was undertaking a new life-cycle analysis of the impact of hydraulic fracturing, expected to be completed in 2012.  The state of New York has called a moratorium on new permits until the study is completed.  Bills have been introduced in the House and Senate to rescind the exemption from Safe Drinking Water Act regulation and to require disclosure of the chemicals (but not the proprietary formulas) used in the process.  Industry spokesmen have asked that no action be taken on these bills until the EPA report is completed.   Stay tuned.

The national Sierra Club has set up a webpage about hydrofracking.  The Club's Grassroots Network likewise has a Hydrofracking Team set up to help Sierra Club members and others from around the country to connect and learn more, and even to organize.  

Other local sources of information include Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council and ProPublica. 

If you'd like to learn more about what the Michigan Chapter is doing about hydrofracking here in Michigan, please contact Conservation Committee Chair Anne Woiwode.