Colorado county copes with methane mystery

Associated Press ^ | Nov 1, 2009 | JUDITH KOHLER

[decimon]

WALSENBURG, Colo. – Bernice and Jerry Angely like to show visitors the singed T-shirt a friend was wearing when their water well exploded and shot flames 30 feet high.

The friend wasn't hurt. But that and an explosion at another home weeks earlier forced Colorado to suspend natural gas drilling around this southern plains town until someone could find out why dangerous levels of methane were getting into the groundwater.

[decimon]

I understand that AP photos are verboten.

[bgill]

Fourth-generation dairy farmer

There's your answer, cows.

[TYVets]

Plus the deer and elk in the area

[GladesGuru]

Sell the methane. Energy is hard to find, water is easliy, though not cheaply, trucked in.

Note to Liberal politicians, eager to shut down another sector of American business so that communism can “have its day in the sun” need to note the following:
1. Energy exploration is called “exploration” for a reason.
2. Remember that it is called “the practice of medicine” for a reason.
3. Note what happened to medicine when a horde of lawyers was allowed to boost medical costs?
4. Want that to occur with energy costs?

Betcha the Liberal really answers “YES, We can”.

[IronJack]

Bovine flatulence.

[chainsaw]

disconnect the water pipes in the house and hook the well pipe to the furnace. Save on heating, and buy bottled water.

[Recon Dad]

Methane is the by product of a huge amount of Natural Gass under pressure.

If I were a land owner and owned the mineral rights I would be exicited. Drill, baby drill!

[aruanan]

We had methane seeping up through yards in southern Michigan and catching on fire. This was not too far from Albion, Michigan.

[Venturer]

Well too close to the septic tank?

[lbama]

In the four corners area of NM and CO, most water wells there have been contaminated. And it has been caused by gas extraction. I’ve known people with flares on their water system.

[TYVets]

4. Want that to occur with energy costs?

Betcha the Liberal really answers “YES, We can”.

They are doing their best for $8 per gallon gasoline!

[decimon]

disconnect the water pipes in the house and hook the well pipe to the furnace. Save on heating, and buy bottled water.

If they could separate the gas from the water, and the water was not contaminated, they'd have a helluva freebie.

[wolfcreek]

Had a little EQ activity in recent days. Also a big coal mining area.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009niaz.php

[TheBattman]

How could cow farts get INTO the well?

Seriously, this is an issue that needs to be addressed. The fracturing process to get the natural gas out of the ground involves breaking up rock layers that have contained the gas for a long time. I find it hard to believe that the frac process can be so controlled as to let the gas out, but not into the surrounding ground water.

There is a growing list of similar complaints here in Arkansas, but less of them are about natural gas in the lines, and more about new horrible smells, oil residue, and even strange brews of chemicals now being found in tap water (from wells). The gas companies claim they have nothing to do with these brand new problems, though they have been drilling and fracing in the area.

Something is up. I am all for tapping our natural gas supply, but I’m not a fan of screwing up people’s water supply (or maybe even blowing someone up!).

[decimon]

I am all for tapping our natural gas supply, but I’m not a fan of screwing up people’s water supply (or maybe even blowing someone up!).

That's the crux of it. Reality is outside of politics so it's determining what is real that is important.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

This was not too far from Albion, Michigan

Cletus NEVER thought he would see a reference to his hometown on FR. Grew-up 1958 through 1981 then 1989 through 2001. (Chicago now).

The Albion-Scipio field is the oldest producing field in the State of Michigan.

You from around those parts, aruanan?

[NVDave]

You can’t truck water cheaply into that country. Especially for what is required for a dairy operation, much less irrigation.

The CBM drillers have been causing water problems all over Montana, Wyoming, Colorado on both sides of the divide. Methane in ground water is just one. The saline discharge water is perhaps one of the bigger problems, and much more intractable.

[NVDave]

You’re right - it is the frac process, as well as the indiscriminate drilling through perched water tables on their way to find CBM.

We’re seeing similar situations on ranches in eastern Wyoming and in Montana. The CBM industry also just discharges water from CBM wells into streams and creeks, and if there’s problems with the water quality, you have to hammer them about it.

If people have never seen the area around Walsenberg, it is an area that is as almost as dry as central Nevada. There’s damn little in the way of farming that can be done without irrigation, so the area is very dependent upon their groundwater supply. Widespread contamination of their groundwater supply is a mortal threat to the town.

[Verbosus]

Is this the same area that the news filmed the people
starting the water out of their faucets on fire?

[GladesGuru]

I didn’t mean to imply dairy farming, much less irrigation water can be trucked in. My post was in reference to housing needs only, a method now well used in Colorado.

Why the methane is not being sold escapes me.

Even more perplexing is why we don’t have lots of fission reactors, given that those same western states hold most of the world’s supply of uranium.

[NVDave]

Even water for domestic needs is a pain in the rear to truck.

When you’re talking of trucking in water, it means that you need a large honkin’ tank for your water reserve. In winter, you need to keep that large tank from freezing.

You’re right that there are other places where lots of people truck water - one of them is Lander, WY. During the summer, it is tolerable. In the winter... a royal pain in the rump.

The thing with CBM drilling is this: the perched tables are possibly compromised now forever. The reason why the methane isn’t being sold is that to sell it, you need to run a pipeline up to the point of diversion, which might need to cross a lot of private land or need to obtain other rights-of-way. Those rights-of-way and easements cost a lot of money to obtain - perhaps so much that the CBM companies cannot make it pencil out to collect the methane from those outlying wells.

But let’s say they could pipe off the methane. There’s another issue, which is the lack of compensation to those affected. The people who have their wells condemned or taken over for methane diversion also might not get anything other than a annual mitigation fee for their trouble if they don’t own the mineral rights. This is a hot button issue with ranchers in Wyoming right now - if you don’t own the mineral rights, the CBM companies can come on your land, drill wells, make a hash out of your land and pay you only $1K/year/wellhead for your trouble. If you do own the mineral rights, well then, sell the cows, throw down your hands and rest easy, ‘cuz you’ve now got a big cash stream on your books.

Sadly, most people don’t own the mineral rights, because the previous generations’ idea of “valuable mineral rights” was predicated upon precious or commercial metals, not methane from deeply-buried coal seams. So they either sold them off or the rights were sold off before they bought the outfit.

[decimon]

Is this the same area that the news filmed the people starting the water out of their faucets on fire?

Don't know. But that would indicate a problem, I'd think.

[aruanan]

You from around those parts, aruanan?

I lived on Monroe a few blocks up from that metal scrapyard near the railroad tracks. Do you remember the shop teacher named Mr. Gant? I loved playing in and around those mill races.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

I grew up on Colfax. We probably know each other, or at least families.

[aruanan]

I grew up on Colfax. We probably know each other, or at least families.

Hmmm, Colfax. I can't place that. Did you know Linda Miller, Butch McCook, David Jones (not that one), Bob Rammelkamp? We just lived there for one year, unfortunately. Do you remember where the bridge went across the river going into downtown and on the east side of the river, on the south side of the bridge, there was a big building that was some sort of mill that was water powered by a race. The water still went into the building on the south side and then flowed out from under the building on the west. There were always lots of really big carp that lived under that building. Folks would fish for the carp with big cane poles using small hooks and kernels of corn. It was in the spring/summer of 65 that that particular mill race was filled in and apartments built there. Next to them there was a foot bridge that went across the river to a big parking lot on the west side of the river. That was a location where, at least that year, a traveling carnival with a Tilt-a-Whirl and other rides set up shop for a few days. Anyway, I discovered that if you followed that mill race to where it flowed into that mill, there were lots and lots of bottles that had floated down it and were there at the intake screen ready for the taking and cashing in. I remember that that river farther upstream in the park where it ran through those stone lined basins and races had quite a few leeches. Albion was a really fun place because it had a public library within walking distances. I read all the science fiction there that they had at a rate of about a book a day. It was great. The new high school had not yet been built so for that year both the junior high and senior high were all together in that one building. I remember seeing fights between biker gang chicks. They used those metal cigarette lighters as weapons.