The Environmental Costs and Benefits of Fracking

Jackson, Robert B.; Vengosh, Avner; Carey, J. William; Davies, Richard J.; Darrah, Thomas H.; O’Sullivan, Francis; Pétron, Gabrielle

doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-031113-144051

Cited by 361 publications

(232 citation statements)

References 121 publications

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“…Indeed, the practice of high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for oil and gas extraction is a growing sector of methane and other hydrocarbon production, especially in the US. Most recent studies M. Saunois et al: The global methane budget 2000709 al., 2014Olivier and Janssens-Maenhout, 2014;Jackson et al, 2014b;Howarth et al, 2011;Pétron et al, 2014;Karion et al, 2013) albeit not all Cathles et al, 2012;Peischl et al, 2015) suggest that methane emissions are underestimated by inventories and agencies, including the USEPA. For instance, emissions in the Barnett Shale region of Texas from both bottom-up and top-down measurements showed that methane emissions from upstream oil and gas infrastructure were 90 % larger than estimates based on the USEPA's inventory and corresponded to 1.5 % of natural gas production (Zavala-Araiza et al, 2015).…”

Section: Shale Gasmentioning

confidence: 99%

The global methane budget 2000–2012

Saunois

Bousquet

Poulter

et al. 2016

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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733

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Abstract. The global methane (CH 4 ) budget is becoming an increasingly important component for managing realistic pathways to mitigate climate change. This relevance, due to a shorter atmospheric lifetime and a stronger warming potential than carbon dioxide, is challenged by the still unexplained changes of atmospheric CH 4 over the past decade. Emissions and concentrations of CH 4 are continuing to increase, making CH 4 the second most important human-induced greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. Two major difficulties in reducing uncertainties come from the large variety of diffusive CH 4 sources that overlap geographically, and from the destruction of CH 4 by the very short-lived hydroxyl radical (OH). To address these difficulties, we have established a consortium of multi-disciplinary scientists under the umbrella of the Global Carbon Project to synthesize and stimulate research on the methane cycle, and producing regular (∼ biennial) updates of the global methane budget. This consortium includes atmospheric physicists and chemists, biogeochemists of surface and marine emissions, and socio-economists who study anthropogenic emissions. Following Kirschke et al. (2013), we propose here the first version of a living review paper that integrates results of top-down studies (exploiting atmospheric observations within an atmospheric inverse-modelling framework) and bottom-up models, inventories and data-driven approaches (including process-based models for estimating land surface emissions and atmospheric chemistry, and inventories for anthropogenic emissions, data-driven extrapolations). . Top-down inversions consistently infer lower emissions in China (∼ 58 Tg CH 4 yr −1 , range 51-72, −14 %) and higher emissions in Africa (86 Tg CH 4 yr −1 , range 73-108, +19 %) than bottom-up values used as prior estimates. Overall, uncertainties for anthropogenic emissions appear smaller than those from natural sources, and the uncertainties on source categories appear larger for top-down inversions than for bottom-up inventories and models.The most important source of uncertainty on the methane budget is attributable to emissions from wetland and other inland waters. We show that the wetland extent could contribute 30-40 % on the estimated range for wetland emissions. Other priorities for improving the methane budget include the following: (i) the development of process-based models for inland-water emissions, (ii) the intensification of methane observations at local scale (flux measurements) to constrain bottom-up land surface models, and at regional scale (surface networks and satellites) to constrain top-down inversions, (iii) improvements in the estimation of atmospheric loss by OH, and (iv) improvements of the transport models integrated in top-down inversions.

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Section: Shale Gasmentioning

confidence: 99%

The global methane budget 2000–2012

Saunois

Bousquet

Poulter

et al. 2016

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

Self Cite

906

733

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“…Estimating the quantity of useable groundwater and assessing the risk of groundwater contamination by human activities, such as oil and gas development, require baseline data and an appropriate monitoring framework (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7). In this paper, we (i) characterize salinity of deep groundwater aquifers in eight counties across California, (ii) estimate useable groundwater volumes in California's Central Valley, and (iii) evaluate potential saline water migration into freshwater zones and underground sources of drinking water (USDWs) in eight counties in California.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Salinity of deep groundwater in California: Water quantity, quality, and protection

Kang

Jackson

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Deep groundwater aquifers are poorly characterized but could yield important sources of water in California and elsewhere. Deep aquifers have been developed for oil and gas extraction, and this activity has created both valuable data and risks to groundwater quality. Assessing groundwater quantity and quality requires baseline data and a monitoring framework for evaluating impacts. We analyze 938 chemical, geological, and depth data points from 360 oil/gas fields across eight counties in California and depth data from 34,392 oil and gas wells. By expanding previous groundwater volume estimates from depths of 305 m to 3,000 m in California’s Central Valley, an important agricultural region with growing groundwater demands, fresh [<3,000 ppm total dissolved solids (TDS)] groundwater volume is almost tripled to 2,700 km3, most of it found shallower than 1,000 m. The 3,000-m depth zone also provides 3,900 km3 of fresh and saline water, not previously estimated, that can be categorized as underground sources of drinking water (USDWs; <10,000 ppm TDS). Up to 19% and 35% of oil/gas activities have occurred directly in freshwater zones and USDWs, respectively, in the eight counties. Deeper activities, such as wastewater injection, may also pose a potential threat to groundwater, especially USDWs. Our findings indicate that California’s Central Valley alone has close to three times the volume of fresh groundwater and four times the volume of USDWs than previous estimates suggest. Therefore, efforts to monitor and protect deeper, saline groundwater resources are needed in California and beyond.

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“…In some cases, there is the potential for "serious" impact and in others, there is "minimal" impact. What is clear is that there is the potential for health and environmental impacts, period, but the scale and risk varies [44]. The purpose of an EIA is thus to determine the scale of impacts of a proposed project, as well as the associated cumulative impacts.…”

Section: Eiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The purpose of an EIA is thus to determine the scale of impacts of a proposed project, as well as the associated cumulative impacts. The literature makes clear that distance, size, scale, and spatial issues are factors [45] to be considered when evaluating impacts, for example, the size of the fracking site, its location, and so on. The closer the proximity of a fracking well to a water source, the higher the risk potential for contamination of groundwater and drinking well water [46].…”

Section: Eiamentioning

confidence: 99%