Natural gas exploration is changing the landscape of Arkansas — literally.

Drilling operations in the Fayetteville
Shale (including future operations planned on state Game and Fish lands
leased to Chesapeake Energy) are raising environmental concerns.
Drilling requires massive amounts of water, and produces a considerable
amount of waste. Water law in the state seems unable to protect
property owners, and state agencies, like the Arkansas Department of
Environmental Quality (ADEQ) seem unable to inspect and regulate the
waste sites.

Advertisement

Most wells are drilled in two steps: By
drilling a well and then using hydraulic fracturing, or fracing, to
crack open the shale so gas can be extracted. The mud produced during
the first phase can be disposed of by land application. But the frac
fluid — water, lubricants, sand and chemicals — can harm the
environment and must be disposed of into sealed, underground wells.

In New Mexico, toxic chemicals from
drilling liquid leaked into the water table at almost 800 sites. Spills
affecting ground water have also been reported in Colorado.

Advertisement

Greenwood, in North Arkansas, just
south of Fort Smith, is home to two surface disposal sites operated by
Green Grow Disposal and Comer Mining Corp. Both of these sites have
repeatedly violated regulations, ADEQ reports indicate.

In September 2006, ADEQ found Green
Grow in violation because the company had not yet filed its 2005 annual
report. Annual reports include data on drilling fluids and soil samples
taken near the reserve pits in which the fluids are held prior to land
application. Since that 2006 inspection, Green Grow has racked up 11
violations in three inspections, including improper land application of
fluids, inadequately high walls around the pits and overflowing pits.

Advertisement

Comer Mining’s record is similarly
poor. Since March 16, 2007, the company has amassed eight violations
resulting from three inspections. Violations involve the absence of
records confirming dates, locations and volumes of fluids accepted,
failure to submit soil samples, improper land application and
inadequate walls around the pits.

The owners of both facilities, Foy
Brown of Green Grow and Henry Comer of Comer Mining, maintain they try
to follow regulations and look out for the environment. The record
indicates otherwise.

Advertisement

Jeff Tyler, an ADEQ inspector
responsible for the area, says that Brown and Comer have been
cooperative. Tyler says there have been rumors that Comer has dumped
fluids into a creek near the pit, but he has been unable to confirm
those reports. While ADEQ has documented improper dumping of frac fluid
at other sites, Tyler said he had not seen evidence of that on either
Greenwood site.

“There’s a lot of public attention to
this and ADEQ is trying to do the best we can to respond to all the
complaints and protect the waters of the state,” Tyler says.

Advertisement

ADEQ has the power to revoke permits
issued to commercial or surface disposal sites that violate state
regulations, but they have yet to do so. The agency’s action to date
has been limited to fines and enforcement actions.

On Sept. 10, a consent administrative
order was issued to Green Grow Disposal by ADEQ, including a fine of
$9,100. After a 30-day comment period, Green Grow will have 30 days to
pay the fine.

Advertisement

ADEQ, the agency charged with ensuring
the safety of state waters, does not have enough inspectors to check
procedures at every drilling/disposal site.

“There are so many of these pits going
in and so many drilling operations going in that we will not be able to
do inspections of every one of those,” Teresa Marks, ADEQ director,
said. “It would just be impossible with our resources. But we have what
we think are the necessary environmental controls in place.”

“Right now it’s a complaint-driven
system,” said Glen Hooks, associate regional representative for the
Sierra Club in Little Rock. “There has to be some self-policing by the
gas companies themselves, and that’s obviously not the best way to go
about it.”

Loren Hitchcock, deputy director of the
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, says that $350,000 of the nearly $30
million the agency will receive in its lease of 12,000 acres of land in
the Petit Jean and Gulf Mountain wildlife management areas will go to
ADEQ in order to hire four additional inspectors. The inspectors,
Hitchcock says, will concentrate on the Fayetteville Shale area.

Advertisement

Environmental groups in other states
where gas is being drilled have been vocal in their concern over the
amount and type of chemicals used in the process.

In Arkansas, drilling permits are
issued by the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission. AOGC Director Lawrence
Bengal says fracing is a safe process because the wells are drilled far
below the water supply and lined with concrete and steel to prevent any
leaks.

He also maintains that the chemicals used are not hazardous.

“Each frac job is primarily water,
about 98 percent or so,” Bengal said. “The other constituents, other
than the water, like gels, are designed specifically for a certain type
of formation. Those components are not classified as hazardous
substances under federal law.”

However, even if 99 percent of the frac
fluid is composed of water and sand, the remaining one percent of two
million gallons of water would constitute 20,000 gallons of chemicals.

Arkansas does not require gas companies
to divulge the chemicals they use in frac fluids. Requiring them to do
so would “infringe upon their competitiveness in the market,” Bengal
said. Other states, including New York, have attempted to make gas
companies disclose the chemicals they use.

One of the questions environmental
groups are asking is whether the state can stand to supply the enormous
amount of water that drilling requires. Hydraulic drills use anywhere
from 1 million to 5 million gallons of water at a single site.

Kenneth Brazil, engineer supervisor
with the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, describes Arkansas as
water-rich and says the state can handle the exploration. The
commission acknowledges, however, that long-term effects are unknown.
(And the NRC’s own website notes that Arkansas’s groundwater is being
depleted faster than the aquifers are recharging.)

“We’re limited in what we can predict,”
Brazil said. “The questions that are bantered around, more
philosophically, are about the long-term effect of having all of this
water usage, and I think the general assumption is that it can’t be
good. In my view it’s really too early to make those kinds of
assumptions. There are a lot of variables involved.”

Jack White, a retired oil and natural
gas driller himself, says drilling in his hometown of Hartford is
causing his well to dry up and hurting the water quality. But property
owners who believe drilling operations are using up their water supply
have little recourse. Arkansas law states only that landowners can take
their “fair share” of water. That vagueness means landowners with
limited resources will have a hard time proving their case in court.

“We’ve tried to go through the courts
and it’s just out of the question,” White says. “Unless you’re a
millionaire of some kind, then you’re just blowing in the wind.”

Edward Swaim, general counsel for the
Natural Resources Commission, agreed. “If you have to go to court over
one of these things, it’s unlikely you’re going to have the money to do
it if you’re an ordinary landowner, because you’ve got to hire experts,
geologists, engineers if you’re going to prove your case.” Lawsuits
also take time. “So there’s not a good way to adjust rights between
water users,” he said.

Aside from its environmental impact,
the drilling — and the influx of trucks, pipelines and wealth that
comes with it — is likely to change the state in a number of ways. “The
full impact of all of this has not been addressed or completely
understood,” said Kent Walker, a Little Rock attorney specializing in
real estate law, especially as it relates to natural gas issues.

“Economically, you’re going to see new
millionaires coming out of White, Cleburne, Conway, and Faulkner
counties. There will be a lot of people who’ve never made $30,000 a
year starting to cash six-figure checks every single month. And
politically we’ve seen these gas companies attempting to lobby and
utilize the legislative system here in the state to their advantage.”

Though the situation requires that
companies police themselves, most companies, especially the larger ones
like Chesapeake, are following the rules, spokesmen for NRC say.
Chesapeake claims it operates above industry and government
environmental standards. But without state inspections, there’s no way
for citizens to know for sure.

Walker is hopeful that community interest and word of mouth will hold the gas exploration industry accountable.

“Small town Arkansas is small town
Arkansas,” Walker says. “If something happens to a neighbor, they go to
the coffee shop and tell somebody. I guarantee you that within two
hours there’s going to be 50 people that know what has happened to
them. People just want to be treated fairly, and with respect. If gas
companies are going to do business in Arkansas, and I believe they will
for some time, then they’ve got to make sure that the property owners
are taken care of.”

50 years of fearless reporting and still going strong

Be a part of something bigger and join the fight for truth by subscribing or donating to the Arkansas Times. For 50 years, our progressive, alternative newspaper in Little Rock has been tackling powerful forces through our tough, determined, and feisty journalism. With over 63,000 Facebook followers, 58,000 Twitter followers, 35,000 Arkansas blog followers, and 70,000 email subscribers, it's clear that our readers value our commitment to great journalism. But we need your help to do even more. By subscribing or donating – as little as $1 –, you'll not only have access to all of our articles, but you'll also be supporting our efforts to hire more writers and expand our coverage. Take a stand with the Arkansas Times and make a difference with your subscription or donation today.

Previous article Drilling to hell Next article Glasnost in Pope County