This document summarizes the health and environmental risks of unconventional gas extraction based on a study of the industry and government policies. It finds that while the government claims natural gas can be a "bridge" to renewable energy and that regulations will prevent issues, numerous studies have shown higher rates of water and air pollution near gas fields. The industrialization of the countryside with well pads, pipelines, and compressor stations also decreases quality of life. The risks of groundwater contamination, air pollution, and methane leaks are high given the large number of wells and extent of infrastructure involved despite claims by government and industry that best practices will prevent problems.

1. Health and Quality of Life in a Gas Field:
A Study in Government and Industry Spin
Brian Davey – For Frack Free Notts

2. The global energy economic context –
climate change and depletion
Climate change – the rate
emissions have to fall to avert
runaway climate change
The rate energy supplies may fall
anyway because of oil, gas and coal
depletion - this has led to high energy
prices acting as a drag on the economy
Source: Kevin Anderson Tyndall Centre
Source: ‘Energy Watch’ Survey 2013
In Britain North Sea Oil and Gas has
been in decline since 2000

3. Is Unconventional Gas (UG) a “bridge”
to a low carbon future?
The government believes UG will extend the
life of the oil and gas industry and has
swallowed the story that natural gas is more
‘climate friendly’ than burning coal or oil
This is only true if:
the gas wells do not leak more than 3.2 % of
their methane production – but an increasing
number of studies suggest that they leak more
and if gas is not used in addition to coal
and if this does not displace the development
of renewables.....

4. 3 “Unconventional Gas”
Technologies
• Shale Gas fracking
• Coal bed methane (coal seam gas) “de-
watering” coal seams.
• Underground coal gasification – partial
combustion of coal in a seam underground to
create syngas (hydrogen, carbon monoxide
and methane) which is then further
combusted or otherwise used at the surface.

5. Shale is impermeable – it has to
be explosively fractured , the
fractures “propped open” (with
sand) and the gas washed out
under high water pressure.
Water per frack per well = 3 to 5
Olympic swimming pools of
water laced with toxic chemicals
pumped by 10 X 1,000 horse
power pumps at 15k psi
pressure
of which 25 to 75% will be
returned to the surface, the rest
remaining underground...
What goes down is toxic – what
comes up is even more so – eg.
BTEX (Benzene, Toluene,
Ethylbenzene and Xylene)
Fracking for Shale Gas

6. Coal Bed Methane
(Coal seam gas)
• Methane is held in place
in cleats (small
fractures) in the coal by
water which is under
pressure.
• By de-watering the coal
the pressure is released
and the methane flows
out with the water....
• Sometimes involves
fracking but usually not

7. Gas Field Infrastructure
A gas field consists of more than well pads – it
also consists of:
Pipelines
Access roads
Compressor stations and gas drying
and cleaning installations
Lots of HGV traffic

9. Land Take for Pipelines
• Example of Dart’s
Proposed Falkirk
Development:
• Pipeline corridors will
take 4.5 x the land area
to be taken by the well
pads (6.4 hectares for
16 sites)
• Landscape Changes
• Loss of farmland;
clearance of trees,
hedgerows; surface
water flows/drainage
affected; paths
intersected; farm
animals, wildlife
affected etc.

10. Compressor Stations
• For every 100 wells there is a gas treatment and compressor station where
the gas is cleaned and ‘dried’ (of natural gas liquids) before it is supplied to
the gas grid. Compressor stations operate 24/365 per year. Concentrates the
pollutants at the point of “cleaning”. Gaseous pollutants dumped into the
atmosphere via a flare – a source of ‘gas field haze....’

11. Land Use – Industrialisation of Countryside
• Unconventional gas is spatially
extensive – well pads, access roads,
pipelines and compressor stations
fragment and change huge areas and
are not easily compatible with other
land uses – agricultural, leisure,
nature reserves, residential.
• There is a lot of traffic, noise, activity
and light 24/7/52with exhaust fumes
from pumps, flaring etc
• Reductions in the quality of life get
reflected in falling house prices. As
an area becomes less desirable
people are prepared to pay less to
live there. Insurance premiums are
likely to rise.
• People remaining are trapped...

12. Development intensity –
an example of a mature oil and gas field

13. Industrialisation of the countryside?
• The Industry
message is that –
technologies of
horizontal boring
from the same well
pad can radically
reduce the surface
spatial land take
compared to a
situation when
each well had its
own well pad –
after the drilling
phase the
structures will be
small.

14. Industrialisation of the countryside?
• However, there is no
suggestion that the
number of wells under
the ground will be less if
the gas is there and can
be tapped commercially
• It is the large number of
wells under the surface
that implies a high level
of activity on the surface
– with much gas, water
and chemicals to be
stored or transported.

15. Activity Level and Transport
“Small towns with big city traffic”
• A figure of 17 - 51 HGV
movements a day per
well pad over a 73 to
145 week period is
repeated several times
in the Strategic
Environment
Assessment document.
It should be taken into
account that a gas field
is likely to have several
multiple well pads.

16. The Lancet 1st
March 2014
• “........findings suggest that this form of
extraction might increase health risks
compared with conventional oil and gas wells
because of the larger surface footprints of
fracking sites; their close proximity to
locations where people live, work, and play;
and the need to transport and store large
volumes of materials.....”

17. Hazards of Unconventional Gas Fields

18. Gas Field
Haze
“Environmental
exposures include
outdoor air pollutants
i.e. volatile organic
compounds,
tropospheric ozone,
and diesel particulate
matter... Known
occupational hazards
include airborne silica
exposure at the well
pad.” The Lancet 1st
March 2014
Wyoming’s air quality is worse than
that of Los Angeles although it has
a very low population density...

19. The government and
industry message
This time it will be different – problems in
Australia and the USA have been because
of lax regulations and poor practice.
In Britain we have the best regulations in
the world and with best practice
unconventional gas can be extracted
safely with harms to local communities
made “not unacceptable” by planning
conditions and other regulations.

20. Is it true UK Regulations are ‘the best
in the world’? (1)
• Asbestos – health problems discovered 1898 – banned
1998
• Benzene – battle over safe levels went on for decades
• BSE – 20 months after discovery of disease before
public told because of fear of losing markets
• Acid rain/sulphur emissions – other European
countries complained for a long time before decline of
coal use made it convenient to introduce flue gas de-
sulphurisation – despite a high number of deaths from
the “pea souper” smogs

21. Is it true UK Regulations are ‘the best
in the world’? (2)

22. Is it true UK Regulations are ‘the best
in the world’? (3)
• Opposed tighter EU regulations
on shale gas
• Government reducing time to
process permits
• Cutting staffing of Environment
Agency
• Allow companies to self-certify
their compliance
• Incentivise local planning
authorities to permit
development by allowing a
higher tax take on gas
developments
• Take away local planning
powers if permits not granted

23. The Spin Offensive
• “The probability of well failure is low
for a single well if it is designed,
constructed and abandoned according
to best practice.” Royal Society/Royal Academy
of Engineering Report
• This is a tautology – assume a
“single well” and “best practice”
and risks will be low by definition

24. Now let’s assume
hundreds of wells
and normal gas field
practice...

25. Water Risks • This statement relies on a
narrow definition of
“hydraulic fracturing” that
excludes
incidents from drilling
damage, failed well casings,
spills, tanker accidents....
Between 2009 and 2010, of 4,000
Pennsylvania shale wells, there
were 630 reported environmental
health and safety violations of
which half were associated with
leaks and spills of the flowback
fluids." (About 8% of the wells).
The fracking
industry frequently
claims that there
are “no proven
incidences of
water
contamination
that have occurred
due to hydraulic
fracturing”

26. Public Health England Spin

27. Real World
• “....in a leap of faith unsubstantiated by
scientific evidence, its authors suggest that
many of environmental and public health
problems experienced in the US would
probably not apply in the UK. Unfortunately
the conclusion that shale gas operations
represent a low risk to public health is not
substantiated by the literature.....” British
Medical Journal

28. • “...the report incorrectly assumes that many of
the reported problems experienced in the US
are the result of a poor regulatory environment.
This position ignores many of the inherent risks
of the industry that no amount of regulation can
sufficiently remedy, such as well casing, cement
failures and accidental spillage of waste water.
There is no reason to believe that these
problems would be any different in the UK and
the report provides little evidence to the
contrary....”

29. Official Policy is not based on the
real world but on an ideal one
• Government policy
and consultation
documents are
characterised by
what psychologists
call “optimism bias”
which does not take
into account
Murphy’s Law and
unknowns.

30. Official documents acknowledge problems but then
assume that regulation will resolve these problems
• The Strategic Environmet Assessment
acknowledges problems for waste and waste
water disposal; health of communities and
workers; land use, geology, soils, landscape and
visual amenity; biodiversity, habitats and eco-
systems; noise, vibration, air quality, traffic; flood
risks...
• For each of these - “it can be assumed/expected
that planning controls will mitigate so that the
problem is ‘not unacceptable’”

31. Example of assumptions
• “It is assumed that
current controls are
enforced by
regulators and
followed by
operators”
from a DECC consultation document
written for the UK government by
AMEC

32. Comment by recently retired Notts
County Council Planner
• “The County Council does have at least one
enforcement officer but all mineral planning
applications now have quite lengthy and complex
conditions attached, and given the range of
development taking place across the county at any
one time, it would be impossible for him/her to
monitor compliance effectively - even before fracking
came along! Local planning authorities do in fact
depend a lot on reports on breaches of conditions
being relayed to them by other interested
parties. This is a nationwide issue, and indeed
enforcement has always been a Cinderella activity of
planning teams due to under-resourcing.”

33. • “...assuming the best available
technology..”
DECC consultation document written for the UK government by AMEC

34. • “Even if risk can be reduced
theoretically, in practise
many accidents from leaky
or malfunctioning
equipment as well as from
bad practises are regularly
occurring. This may be due
to high pressure to lower
the costs or to improper
staff training, or to
undetected leaks leading to
contamination of the
ground water.”
• United Nations Environment
Programme Report
The Real World

35. The Gas Industry has co-opted its own regulation
at national government level
Lord Browne’s
senior appointees:
4 appointees in senior
positions in DEFRA, the
ministry that oversees the
regulators
3 appointees in senior
positions in the Dept Energy
and Climate Change
4 Senior appointees into
the Treasury – including
Baroness Hogg an
independent director of the
British Gas group to ensure
financial support packages

36. End

37. Through improperly sealed
bores, venting to control
pressures, faulty equipment or
out of the ground
The industry often tries to say
that gas leaks are due to
“naturally occurring methane”
Evidence of methane higher
near wells, less further away –
true for water and airborne
methane
Other gases are also
discovered in higher
concentrations than would be
expected - like radon which is
released when deep geological
strata are disturbed
‘Fugitive’ Gas Risks
(Gas Leaks)

38. Flow back contamination
• In an exchange between the EA and local oil and gas engineer Mike Hill,
the EA provided the following breakdown of the flow back water from
Cuadrilla’s Preece Hall well in Lancashire:
• Lead approx 1438 times normal tap water content.
• Cadmium approx 150 times normal tap water content.
• Magnesium approx 43 times normal.
• Chromium (μg/l). 636 times normal.
• Aluminium approx 197 times normal.
• NORM – 90 times maximum permissable limit

39. Pictures show the amount of Coal Seam Gas water that might have to be put
in tanks and transported away.
We are being told that contaminated flow back water from shale gas fracking
would be put into what are converted containers and then sent for
treatment. Because the gas industry is working with water and gas under
pressure - with corresponding explosion risks - these would have to be
vented / flared – so they are not going to be entirely “sealed”. Containers
would mean another a very large volume of tanker movements....
Surface Water Risks