Gas well blowout causes massive fluid spill
A gas well blowout spilled thousands of gallons of hydraulic fracking drilling fluid water in the US state of Pennsylvania, state and local regulators said.
A gas well blowout spilled thousands of gallons of hydraulic fracking drilling fluid water in the US state of Pennsylvania, state and local regulators said.
Alan Jones talks with Fiona Simson (of NSW Farmers) and Senator Bill Heffernan, about Australian food security, and says this is the gravest issue he has ever addressed. He talks of how our governments are virtually turning Australia into a giant mine, with no thought at all for the future.
The methane escape is only one of three major CSG cost externalities which will be paid for by the community whilst the companies bank their profits; the other two are health and water contamination.
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Old holes made in search of oil and gas have been abandoned but may be providing paths for contamination to creep up.
Last year, oil and gas operators drilled almost 45,000 new wells across the United States, and that number is expected to hold steady or increase as the nation tries to wean itself from foreign oil. If even a small fraction of those wells is eventually abandoned, states will be left with the bill, just as they were when the last boom ended in the mid-1980s.
THE Great Artesian Basin Co-ordinating Committee has called for tighter regulation of mining and exploration in the area. There has been a dramatic increase in exploration and drilling, particularly for coal-seam gas, in the basin in recent years. The fear is that drilling will break water-bearing seams, causing contamination and water loss.
“We are being told it is all under control, but we don’t have enough evidence to satisfy ourselves that it won’t jeopardise the GAB in certain areas forever.”