I Have Nothing Better To Do Than Trash An Awesome Industry That Employs Millions

It seems like only yesterday, but it was way back on November 7, 2010 that I blogged about a bizarrely blue Chesapeake Energy frac pond with a sign bragging that "This fresh-water frac pond is operated by Chesapeake Operating, Inc.

Today that long ago blogging got two comments from someone named Anonymous.

There are so many people with that Anonymous name.

I love it when I learn something new.

In the today's second comment about this long ago blogging I learned that the oil companies employ millions of Americans. And that fresh water frac ponds are filled with fresh water from water wells, disabusing me of my erroneous notion that the Barnett Shale gas drillers were sucking water out of the Trinity River.

Below is the comment from Anonymous that really wised me up to the facts and below that the other comments that have been made to this particular blog post....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Fort Worth Chesapeake Fresh-Water Frac Pond's Unnatural Shade Of Blue": 

Fresh water frac ponds are filled with fresh water from water wells, the same water you drink. The oil companies are running a clean operation because they have too much to lose. Unlike the people who have nothing more to do than trash a awesome industry that employs millions of Americans! 

JD said...
Seems to be the same shade of blue as the Trinity River, in all the Trinity River brochures...and in the new frac pond in North Richland Hills. Maybe the Trinity River Vision Authority turned the fresh water blue.

CHK Sucks said...
"Fresh water", huh? Sounds very refreshing. Have you thought about bottling some for your Tandy Hill hikes? Seriously, this "fracked" or "produced" water which is more toxic than the original water and cocktail of chemicals that were hot into the ground because when that liquid comes back up it brings along some naturally occuring but dangerous chemicals as well. A bunch of healthy cows keeled over shortly after sipping on a leaking pond in Louisiana last year. Yep, the culprit was fracking CHK Energy, Operating, or whatever myriads of aliases they use.

Anonymous said...
It looks like a dye used in stock ponds to make them more attractive and supposedly reduce algae growth, but it is really just for looks.

Anonymous said...
A Frac Pond is used to store the "fresh" water for fracking the well or wells on a pad site. There are no state regulations for how long they can remain in place. They can hardly be truly "fresh" when the pumps are pumping the water to mixing areas for the fracking formula. There is bound to be some flowback from those areas back to the "FRAC Pond." Even a little of that concoction can poison the water.

A Sludge Pit is where the "produced" water ends up AFTER the well has been FRACKED. Sludge Pits and Frac Ponds are two different parts of the shale gas drilling process. When they say, "oh, our city doesn't have sludge pits." What they mean is they have what is called "closed loop" so that when all that produced water comes back up (probably 1/2 of the water that goes down into the wellbore will come back up) then they store it in "tanks or tank batteries," on the site. 

Trucks will come later to pick it up and throw it away (that's also highly unregulated) or inject it into an injection well somewhere nearby or out in the country. 

The problem with the Frac Ponds is the potential for flowback from the wellbore as the "fresh water" is mixed with chemicals and sand that is pumped into the Earth.

Also, any "FRAC Pond" the size these are that are so close to residential neighborhoods have the potential for mosquito outbreaks, etc. Lots of ridiculous stuff that this industry has convinced everyone is A-OK.

Westchester Neighbor said...
Oh, and here's our monstrous FRAC Pond. It was placed 10 feet from residents in the Westchester neighborhoods in Grand Prairie, TX.

It forced our community to become knowlegeable about shale gas drilling. Our education has made us very skeptical of this shale gas industry. They are bound and determined to turn their targeted areas into industrial zones. 

Anonymous said...
the fact is there are new means and methods to treat the frac water. Our company for example has a product used to treat all soil, hydrocarbons, metals etc. We have the ability to remove 90% of the contaminates from the water as it is produced. Sitedewatering.com is the link, so there is no reason for things like this to occur in our country of great technology. This process is cheaper than ponds, tanks and other devices used today. So if the companies research solutions, they would find us and have more money to maintain compliance with and create more jobs etc, etc.

Anonymous said...
...Or it could just be calcium carbonate and water colorant... granted I wouldn't drink the colorant but go look at any dolomitic limestone quarry and you'll see the same hue.