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Successful water quality monitoring in fracking is required to avoid surface and groundwater contamination. Sophisticated, multi-parameter, real-time systems promote compliance monitoring, early warning, and environmental defense, facilitating safer, more innovative energy production, even as activities shift to more difficult locations.
Fracking has transformed global energy production as it has opened new sources for oil and gas, long considered out of reach. But with this breakthrough in technology, there is also the responsibility to protect our water, both surface and ground, from possible contamination.
The nature of fracking makes for complex operations that require advanced monitoring techniques, far beyond the basic alternatives of spot checks. Covering a range from pre-drilling baseline, through operational checks to post-operational surveillance, a complete understanding of water quality monitoring will depend on consideration of a range of contaminant transport pathways, use of multi-parameter systems, and vigilance at all stages of operations.
Water quality considerations during fracking are exclusive compared to most traditional drilling. It involves firing millions of gallons of what’s known as fracking fluid, a mixture of water, sand, and an array of chemical additives, at incredibly high pressure to blast apart rock formations deep underground, triggering the flow of oil and gas. That, combined with the geologic intricacy of fracked reservoirs, has multiple potential hydrological pathways for contamination is undeniable.
Risks arise through several pathways. Leakages from fluids mixing, storage, or transportation can also directly leak into nearby streams, rivers, and lakes. Poorly managing flowback water, which is frac water that comes up to the surface after the operation is complete, presents a significant threat to surface water bodies. Also, mismanagement of produced water, the mixture of returned fracking fluid and formation water extracted from deep geological formations, can result in surface contamination if containment or disposal systems fail.
Although the process of fracking generally takes place at depths far below aquifers used for drinking water, there are a variety of ways in which fracking fluid and other contaminants might migrate.
Poor casing or cementing can lead to fracking fluids or produced water migrating into shallow aquifers. Legacy or pre-SCA abandoned wells within/on the perimeter of the site may serve as conduits for migration of deep contaminants into a freshwater sand lens. The high-pressure injection process could also reactivate pre-existing geological faults or induce new fractures outside the target formation.
Chemicals add yet another layer of monitoring complexity. Fracking fluids are made up of hundreds of different chemicals, all of which have different environmental and health impacts. Operators such as these share some chemicals, while others are proprietary.
The chemical composition of produced water is far more complex than other industrial wastes, and, in addition to the returned fracking chemicals, it includes naturally occurring substances from deep formations, including heavy metals, radioactive substances, and high levels of salts and other dissolved solids.
Quality control for fracking water is paramount even before the first well is drilled. Defining detailed background data is essential to distinguish between natural water quality changes and hydrochemical impacts from fracking activities. This reference data is the baseline from which all future monitoring is based, and any changes in water quality are considered.
Pre-drilling site characterization should include all sources of water within any reasonable distance of the proposed work. This includes private wells, public water systems, surface water, and a monitoring well explicitly installed for baseline monitoring. A baseline survey should be obtained at least six months before drilling with several sampling events to accommodate seasonal and random fluctuations in water quality.
Complete coverage of parameters in baseline monitoring should be much more than the basic water quality parameters:
Proper temperature control must also be followed to ensure accurate interpretation of all other items. No samples should be used if the temperature response is inconsistent, as this may indicate contamination. ORP measurements offer elemental speciation as well as indications of redox potential, which may help reduce conditions related to some categories of contaminants.
The suspected contamination from fracking is so complex that the monitoring system should be able to monitor multiple water quality parameters at once. Though single-parameter monitoring strategies are valuable for applications, they are not capable of providing complete surveillance for successful fracking water quality management.
Real-time monitoring must be in place to identify and respond to contamination as it happens. Conventional grab sampling and laboratory testing are crucial for extreme testing, though they cannot offer the immediate detection that would stop minor incidents from turning into full-blown contamination. Real-time monitoring systems should be in place to continuously monitor key parameters, while also enabling immediate alarms when parameters exceed predefined values and logging of performance data for trend analysis and regulatory reporting.
pH monitoring remains central to fracking water quality monitoring. Frequently, frack fluids are acids used for sound stimulation, and waters containing these acids can be identified by their pH as a characteristic of their presence. Additionally, pH influences the bioavailability and the toxicity of most contaminants, being one of the essential parameters of study for assessing the general implications. pH monitoring should be temperature-compensated and regularly calibrated in the field to ensure accuracy.
Pure water conductivity measurements offer quick testing of dissolved impurities, including the type of high-salinity produced water that is one of the most frequent sources of fracking contamination. Through monitoring of conductivity, contamination events can be detected within minutes, thus delivering vital forewarning. Conductivity measurements should, however, be interpreted carefully, as changes in conductivity can also occur due to natural fluctuations in groundwater chemistry.
Dissolved oxygen monitoring can detect changes in water chemistry that may be indicative of contamination. Fracking fluids and produced water frequently have dissimilar oxygen content from that of native groundwater, and contamination episodes may result in quantifiable changes in DO concentrations. Furthermore, the measurement of dissolved oxygen is used to assess the feasibility of biologically treating a polluted water source and also the presence of an organic contaminant that would consume oxygen for biodegradation.
Contemporary fracking water quality monitoring should be a combination of different techniques and methods for continuous monitoring. The best monitoring programs couple continuous real-time feedback with episodic sampling and analysis – for a tiered approach that can detect emissions immediately, and yet characterize emissions in detail.
CMT should be established to surround fracking operations to allow for total spatial and temporal coverage. These networks typically comprise monitoring wells along potential contamination paths, surface water monitoring stations on nearby streams and rivers, and more intensive metering of community water supply wells. The layout should consider local hydrogeology, potential contamination routes, and local regulations.
Data integration and management systems are crucial for handling the millions of sequences generated from large monitoring programs. Current monitoring systems need to be self-sufficient and include online data transfer, automatic control of data quality, trending process and tools, and interfacing with existing environmental management devices. Plus, a cloud data system offers even more advantages, allowing multi-site firms to centralize data storage, utilize the cloud for powerful analytics, and enable remote regulatory data reporting requirements.
Automatic early warning systems can send out alerts if water quality conditions are above certain thresholds. These systems must be stable and support various combinations, with feature levels of alerts based on the detected changes. Mobile communications mean that targeted individuals are alerted straight away, wherever they are.
Quality assurance and control procedures are also critical for monitoring data integrity. That has meant routine calibration of monitoring equipment, duplicate sampling and analysis, participation in proficiency testing programs, and record-keeping of all monitoring performed. Quality control procedures would need to be established to accommodate the harsh environment typically found during fracking operations under scenarios of equipment fouling, drill rig interference, and the necessity of rapid response to a contamination event.
The monitoring of fracking water quality is governed by a confusing web of federal, state, and local laws that differ radically between jurisdictions. These requirements must be mastered to effectively monitor programs that are adapted to both the obligations of the law and the information required for environmental protection.
The Safe Drinking Water Act requires protecting underground sources of drinking water, and the Clean Water Act regulates discharges into surface waters. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act regulates the handling of hazardous wastes, some of which are fracking byproducts. However, numerous exclusions enable significant activity without regulation under standard environmental laws.
Effective monitoring of the water quality of fracking starts with thoughtful planning of a program, the right choice of equipment, and the careful program management that it demands. The best systems combine multiple methods of observation with the latest advancements in technology for their surveillance, also being cost-effective and meeting any regulatory requirements.
The particular challenges of fracking operations have to be considered in the selection and deployment of equipment. The monitoring devices must withstand harsh in-service conditions in the field, including temperature swings, vibration, electronic pollution, and possibly corrosive media. Equipment should be able to measure several parameters, allow for real-time data transmission, and require little maintenance.
The Atlas Scientific Industrial Sensor Interface System is a complete solution that will meet all of your monitoring needs when it comes to industrial water quality applications. The uniqueness of this system lies in the fact that it caters to the requirements of fracking operations by monitoring as many as eight different parameters simultaneously, providing multi-parameter surveillance necessary for contamination detection.
The system’s real-time tracking can be viewed through an attractive 4×40 character back-lit LCD interface, with quick visibility to a change in water quality! This near real-time capability is critical to fracking operations, where early detection of contamination events can stop minor problems from becoming bigger ones for the environment. Its intuitive menu permits calibration and temperature compensation without the need for a technician.
Developing for fracking is especially prominent in FHD. Featuring an IP67 enclosure rating, it is well suited for use in rugged outdoor environments where sensitive electronics need to be protected from dust, moisture, and temperature extremes. The modular design concept allows operators to build a monitoring system that includes the parameters they need now–with the flexibility to add more as monitoring needs change.
Both short-term immediate operational and long-term environmental management needs are served by data management and integration capabilities. Units also feature analog outputs (4-20mA) for use with process control systems, while RS232 serial communications support advanced data processing needs. Time-stamped SD data logging allows the user to document readings and effortlessly follow the protocol for record-keeping requirements.
Water quality monitoring in fracking operations is a nexus point between energy and the environment, but to be useful it must be done well. As the industry grows into its own, the need for complete, solid monitoring systems becomes more and more prevalent.
The Atlas Scientific Industrial Sensor Interface System is a significant advancement in this evolution, featuring the advanced monitoring capabilities, industrial-strength reliability, and operating flexibility that today’s fracking operations need.
If you would like to learn more, contact the world-class team at Atlas Scientific today.
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