Saturday, October 18, 2014

Exporting Fresh Water for Fracking



I realize there has been a huge ongoing campaign about fresh waters sales from Canada to the United States and to be quite frank, I never understood why. Water is a renewable resource. It evaporates and come back to us as rain. Now I realize why it is a concern. They are polluting massive amounts of water for fresh water fracking.

CBC is reporting that "the Western Canada Wilderness Committee and the Sierra Club filed a petition against the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission and energy company EnCana Corp. over the commission's decision to grant repeat short-term water approvals to the company. The environmental groups wanted the court to declare the approvals a violation of the provincial Water Act. They also asked a judge to quash several such permits issued to Encana. But in a decision posted this week on the court website, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick dismissed the application."

Why was the application dismissed? "Days before the court hearing began, the provincial government introduced its updated Water Sustainability Act, which expressly allows recurrent short-term approvals. But the previous legislation did not prohibit such approvals." Christy Clark and the BC Liberals changed the law that they were breaking days before the trial. The Water Sustainability Act does the exact opposite of what it claims just like Harper's not about Crime bill does and just like the US Patriot Act does.

"Court heard that in 2012, the oil and gas commission granted the industry access to 20.4 million cubic metres of surface water. About seven million were for fracking — 54 per cent of that from short-term approvals." The judge lied and said only a small percentage of the water the US gets from Canada is being used in fresh water fracking. That is a lie. The US is using massive amounts of fresh water for fracking. Instead of using it for drinking or irrigation they use it for fracking. We give them water for drinking and irrigation so they can use theirs for fracking. It's that simple.

Recently Gwyn Morgan criticized New Brunswick and Nova Scotia's decision to join with Quebec to ban fracking because of the massive amounts of water it pollutes. Apparently they have banned liquid propane fracking as well as fresh water fracking. There is a huge difference between the two. Fresh water fracking involves putting massive amounts of toxic chemicals into the water to make fracking fluid which leaves toxic tailing ponds behind. Fracking with propane does not.

As one blog reader pointed out, fracking with liquid natural gas doesn't pollute massive amounts of fresh water like fresh water fracking does. He claims one Alberta company does fracking with propane not water and they have some oil wells in northern BC. The problem is not all the BC oil wells use propane fracking instead of fresh water fracking.

The same concern exists in the United States. The massive amounts of fresh water they are still using for fracking is creating a drought from Texas to California. We need to put a moratorium on fresh water fracking in BC and the export of BC water for fresh water fracking. Claiming they aren't uing it for fracking is untrue. If the BC Liberals won't do it we need to elect someone else who will.

Heating with natural gas is good. Heating with coal is bad. Fracking with liquid propane is good. Fracking with fresh water is bad. Fracking with liquid propane costs more. That's why some companies won't do it. The public need to force them to. It's a matter of public safety.

14 comments:

  1. The claim that they use Propane for fracking is incorrect.
    It is sour gas (uncleaned natural gas) which comes of the top of Oil cavity newly drilled.
    The use of gas is limited to financial viability as gas requires extensive compression and water does not.
    The use of water in fracking cause serious and often permanent damage to Water Tables and sub-surface Artesian wells - both pure and mineralized. The result is often permanent land natural irrigation damage.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. you are totally wrong, they do use propane, and it is the same propane you use in your bbq bottles it is hauled to the frac sites and put in large mobile vessels

      Delete
    2. They could not as propane is distilled from oil at a temperature of 95 C. The quality, at this stage is DIRTY Propane, and must be MORE REFINED for any domestic use
      This process is not on Site .
      You have PROPANE AND SOUR GAS MIXED UP!
      They may say this , but it is totally WRONG!!!
      I am Qualified to state these facts !
      Gas and Petroleum Technology is my second BCIT discipline.
      MY STUDIES under a Petroleum Engineer cover GAS AND PETROLEUM UTILIZATION AND TRANSMISSION.

      Delete
    3. Also, Propane being EXTREMELY UNSTABLE would never be certified by any Engineering standard to be used in an highly igniteable Environment that the ground alone could easily ignite it and cause massive sub-surface damage.
      Propane instability is a factor in never introducing into another PETROLEUM Environment!

      Delete
  2. Liquid Propane is not possible on any Oil Fracking or drilling process as it is a distillation of crude Oil taking a lot of refining ENERGY not available at extraction sites.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. once again your facts are incorrect as the propane is recycled and reused, Husky Oil does this through some of their plants

      Delete
    2. I am afraid you are being grossly mislead.
      Propane is not recycled as this term only relates to a change in characteristics then refinement or renewabilty. PROPANE, once it is refined for domestic use it does not change its character and is either VAPOUR or Compressed LIGUID.
      Husky Oil is not a REFINERY, they buy their product from the other major REFINERY and they are not a SINGULARITY - meaning stand alone Company.

      Delete
  3. I think most people agree fracking with water is totally irresponsible. That's why Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia has banned it. In the other post about fracking a blog reader mentioned Gasfrack uses propane. The Globe and Mail states "Gasfrac, based in Calgary and Houston, uses a propane-based gel in its operations, instead of injecting water into the underground cracks that make up a fracking operation."
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/breakthrough/taking-the-water-out-of-fracking/article13876363/

    On their web site Gasfrac states it uses gelled LPG technology:
    http://www.gasfrac.com/

    However even they are starting to use water to offset costs as well as gelled propane:

    http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/GasFrac+stock+pounded+revenue+shrinks/10101594/story.html

    If we ban water fracking in BC like the other provinces that will force them to use the more expensive but more sustainable method.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That site stating Gelled Propane is FALSE. GELL is a by product of CRUDE OIL, not related to PROPANE, and is close to the last highest thermal break down before bithulic - commonly called TAR.
      By its self PROPANE only has mainly 3 stages of existence GAS , VAPOUR, and LIQUID. The threshold for gas is unsustainable. DOMESTIC PROPANE IS NOT A GAS but a VAPOUR.

      Delete
    2. this is a patented technology and there is no crude oil involved, why do you not read the website for information on this prcedure for fracking

      Delete
    3. Those not qualified to fully know this Technology are easily swayed into believing.
      This site has a revealing factor related to a group of extremely questionable member on the Board of Directors - not one related to this Industry.
      As for patent, it comes down to an old cliché. You can fool half the people some of the time (with politically written word) and not all the people all of the time!
      They have attempted cover up MUCH MORE that they are not telling unaware Public. Common practice for all related Oil Industry Practices. OIL INDUSTRY is awash of CORRUPTION TIED TO POLITICS.

      Delete
    4. Yeah we're gonna need a little more than trust me I know. Lets start going through the links. Gasfrac is in Alberta and Houston.

      Delete
  4. By telling the TRUTH about this serious and dangerous subject, http://securityscorecard.com/ ... A political watchdog, just started monitoring.

    ReplyDelete
  5. http://williamahuston.blogspot.ca/2012/04/truth-about-fracking-with-propane.html?m=1
    If you read all of this (understanding the chemical processes) you would discover the total miss-use of the term GELL.
    It would be properly called a SLURRY of a massive number of chemicals attempting to stabilize LPG. As soon as it enters the ground it becomes UNSTABLE releasing all of the untold number of toxic and radio-active chemicals - not to mention that none of this process is WORLD standardized to any SAFE USE!

    ReplyDelete

Comments are moderated so there will be a delay before they appear on the blog.