Anatomy of a Fracked Well

[Rick Rowlands]

I was not condoning dumping anything into the river.  I was trying to put the quantities involved into a frame of reference that I hope could be more easily understood.  It is difficult to picture 4.2 million gallons of water, but it is easy to imagine standing on the Mahoning Ave. bridge for nine minutes watching that amount of water pass underneath.

The point of all this is to show that the fracking water is not as hazardous as it is made out to be.  The gas industry has done a horrible job of educating the public, their silence has fed the fears of the general public that this stuff is toxic when the facts show that is not the case.

A secondary point to consider is that when there are incidents such as the D&L dumping, the amounts involved will not cause the environmental damage that is feared.    We still do not dump untreated liquids into the river regardless, but hopefully at least a few people may understand that when it does happen it is not a catastrophe.

[Youngstownshrimp]

I'm always pleased when intelligent ones come to the debate.

[Why?Town]

I came up with the hydrochloric acid from the hypothetical dump as being one millionth of what it takes to be an irritant, 10% according to Rick. So 999,999 dumps should be the limit. Money has nothing to do with it.

Really no dumping is OK

[kenneyjoe330]

Dear Youngstownshrimp - I am really interested in the saying "you have two cows, I wish one dies."  I would LOVE to know what nationality has such a saying - if you would PLEASE let me know - I am very interested in ethnic 'stuff' 
Now for the Franking Business:
The original thread started by Mr. Rowlands, if agreed, states that racking from a certain well has very little to hardly any chemical consequences to drinking water.  The thread goes on about dumping the entire contents into Meander with no problems.  I've read that and how can you NOT agree???  We can take this further and state that you can dump a few times that amount into Meander with out any consequences to the purity of the drinking water.  My question is this ---- So when does it become a problem - 100 dumpings ?  500 dumpings ?  1,000 dumpings ?  If YOU say and I agree one is no problem - then PLEAE tell me how much would be ENOUGH   Does that make any sense to you ?  If YOU make such a statement and are so knowledgeable - which I am not - please fill me in - and YOU make the statement PLEASE don't tell me to "read up dummy" on a statement you made - YOU explain your statement and back up your own facts as you see them, and please fell free to give references to your theories.  Oh I see Why?Town gave the example of dumping into Meander - so what say You Why?Town ?  Where would you draw the line ?  And for how much $. 
I will reiterate what I firmly believe - if you are in favor of fracking then I think you should get your drinking water directly out of the Mahoning River.

[iwasthere]

no i do not want one cow to die but want a bull become a frd of the cow.

[Youngstownshrimp]

Iwasthere, Good then.  In regards to fracking, I invite all of you to visit the largest landowner group in PA and Ohio, thousands read and post on that site.  We are all landowners just wanting to get educated truthfully.  GoMarcellusshale.com is full of knowledgeable people from all backgrounds.  We started posting on this blog when the oil companies first came to town.  Unfortunately, Youngstown is slower to get educated on high tech energy.
If you want to be a leader in this City you are correct you need to educate the citizens and we on GoMarcellusshale.com are willing to help.  Still my gut tells me the antifracking movement here in truth wants to ban all drilling in Youngstown because they have no land and like the old saying in Youngstown goes, "you have two cows, I wish one dies."

[iwasthere]

i am not taking anyone rights away from selling their mineral rights. i belong to a grp that want to educate the public on the pros and cons of this fracking industry. frack your land till your hrt is content. just do your hw and cross your t's and dot your i's when you are dealing with the gas and oil co. you think my blood pressure goes up when i write on this blog, its the opposite. i too will always remain nice to you in public and on this blog but now and then i will give you fourty lashes with a wet noodle. we all must learn to communicate with a tongue and cheek approach without to avoid a miss understanding. i promise i will not beat you up in public or in private with your drumsicks while you are playing with your jazz grp. i like jazz and the blues in which do not promote violence, just tranquility.

[Youngstownshrimp]

Iwasthere, you may want to cool it.  Please reread my post, nothing personal at all and you don't want to threaten me especially in writing.  If you are fighting  Youngstown landowners to lose their right to harvest their minerals, you are going to get a fight because you are "taking" from us.  I have always been courteous to you in public but I am seeing that you without getting educated are making a political stand to impose on us landowners a hardship resulting in taking away our ability to make our land productive.  You need to govern yourself accordingly on what you and your ilk are doing in public, this is not a joke.

[Rick Rowlands]

Ron was asking an honest question given your reputation, lack of personal integrity and a woefully inadequate command of the English language.   

[iwasthere]

the geologists that i mentioned also worked side by side with chemists in the gas and oil co. while on they were on projects sites. one geologist comes from a fam that owns a gas and oil co since the 1900 to present. ytown shrimp do you want me attack you personally on this blog. i can write some nasty personal things that i heard from people that you and i know concerning you but i do not because i rather say it to your face.

[Why?Town]

Rick,

That's some great information!

Let's do something completely insane (hypothetically, of course). Let's dump the whole 4,261,793 gallons of fracking fliud into the Meander Reservoir.

How bad is this? Terrible, horrendous, etc!

Actually the 7,640 gallons of hydrochloric acid from the dumping, when poured into the 11,000,000,000 gallon reservoir ends up being diluted to just .0000694% or less than one millionth of the minimum threshold of 10% which would make it an irritant.

Considering the hydrochloric acid is at least 17 times the amount of any other individual chemical in the fluid there is little need to do any math on those.

Anyone that wants to distort my words into wanting to dump in the reservoir, note the red font above.

I also will not drink undiluted hydrochloric acid or any other undiluted fracking fluid so don't bother asking. I would however drink from directly from Meander after the dump.

[Youngstownshrimp]

I think we need to shut off Iwasthere's heat and lights.  We also should have him banned from gasoline stations.
Rick, nice response on the geology versus chemical subject of Iwasthere.  Seriously, Iwasthere was a teacher?  How did he earn his pension?

[Rick Rowlands]

I am sure you already know this but geologists study rocks, not chemicals.

[iwasthere]

i will give this list of chemicals to my geologist Fds to due further investigations on the good, bad and the ugly of these chemicals.

[Rick Rowlands]

We hear from the antifrackers that it is unknown what is in fracking fluid.  That information is now online. Go to fracfocus.org and you can search for any well across the country an learn exactly what is in the frack fluid and its concentration. 


I chose one well near me, the Patterson 2013 1HM well outside of Pulaski, PA to investigate.  This well was fracked with 4,261,793 gallons of fracking fluid. To give you some idea of the amount of water that it, if you were standing on the Mahoning Avenue bridge over the Mahoning River, at the current rate of flow it would take nine minutes for that much water to pass beneath your feet.  So this is not an insignificant amount of water.


If we break down some of the ingredients in the fluid, we find that the third largest ingredient behind water and sand is 7,640 gallons of hydrochloric acid. At a concentration of 0.17929% it is well under the minimum threshold of 10% which would make it an irritant.  The Clean Water Act does not list it as a toxic substance.
441 gallons of isopropanol.  The same stuff you have in your medicine cabinet which you pour over wounds to disinfect them.  (rubbing alcohol)
441 gallons of orange oil.  Orange oil is available on Amazon as an essential oil for aromatherapy.
22 gallons of hydrotreated light petroleum distillate. At high concentration can cause headaches and skin irritation.  22 gallons in 4.2 million gallons does not qualify as a high concentration.  Think "dry gas".
16.6 gallons of tributyl tetradecyl phosphonium chloride, which is a biocide used to control the growth of algae in the water.  Commonly used in recirculating water systems including boilers and water heating systems.
10 gallons of ammonium chloride, which is commonly used as a nitrogen source in fertilizer.
4.6 gallons of methanol, aka wood alcohol

There are a few others at similarly low concentrations.   Truthfully I did not know what was in fracking fluid until tonight, but now that I have researched every ingredient in the list, I am even more convinced that fracking fluid poses no threat.  I do not know which of these chemicals if found in my well water would be considered a contaminant at these concentrations.  Every single one is well below the minimum threshold to be considered hazardous.