NEWS

CSU team calls for more study of fracking spills

Jacy Marmaduke
jmarmaduke@coloradoan.com

A team of CSU researchers wanted to find out how long chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing remain in soil after being spilled and whether certain chemical combinations have different effects.

Their findings, they say, underscore the need for more research on fracking and other chemical spills, especially those on or near agricultural land.

Fracking operators inject a combination of water and chemicals into the ground when they drill into shale and rock formations to extract oil. Operators reported about 840 fracking fluid spills to Colorado's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in 2014, according to a paper the Colorado State University team published in the Environmental Science and Technology journal. Included in that count are spills larger than five barrels that happen at well pads and spills larger than one barrel when they happen elsewhere, according to a CSU press release.

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A worker monitors pressure and temperature of water being pumped into the ground at a hydraulic fracturing site outside Rifle, Colo., in 2013.

The researchers — professor Thomas Borch from the soil and crop sciences department; research assistant professor Jens Blotevogal from the civil and environmental engineering department and their graduate student Molly McLaughlin — simulated spills using a reactor and studied the chemical reactions and breakdown of three fracking chemicals.

If the chemicals don't quickly biodegrade, or break down, they have more time to reach groundwater or sensitive surface water, Borch said in the CSU press release.

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The researchers found that combining some of the chemicals led to slower breakdown. In one instance, the combination of PEG (polyethylene glycol, a commonly used liquid) and glutaraldehyde (a substance that prevents pipe corrosion) didn't break down at all when salt concentrations typical for oil and gas extraction were present.

The team called for more studies industry-wide on how spilled chemicals interact with the environment.

"We cannot say our findings are valid for all the different chemicals used worldwide in hydraulic fracturing," Blotevogal said. "There are probably 1,000 different chemicals used globally, and they all behave very differently with respect to how they are broken down."