UPDATE: See below for more information about attending or watching the event.
A program entitled “Symposium on the Impact of Oil Extraction in Orange County” has been scheduled for Tuesday, September 23, 6:00 p.m., at the Titan Student Union, Cal State Fullerton. The stated purpose of the event is to “provide local policy makers and the public objective, impartial information about the environmental impact of oil extraction in north Orange County.”
The symposium comes at a time when many in North OC and elsewhere across the country are rightly concerned about the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” and the acidization of oil and natural gas wells by the drilling industry. Both processes utilize chemical mixtures and large amounts of water to loosen and extract deep oil and gas deposits in an attempt to wring the last usable fossil fuels from the earth. The controversial practices have been linked to groundwater contamination by proprietary chemicals and natural gas and to earthquakes.
Documentaries like Split Estate and Gasland have chronicled the damage done to homes and lives near fracking sites in other parts of the country, where water has been so polluted that it’s actually flammable.
The fate of Fullerton’s groundwater?
Earlier this year Fullerton’s Director of Engineering Don Hoppe deflected concerns about water contamination by stating during a meeting of the City Council that drilling occurs well below the water table, but he evidently did not consider that the old concrete lining well shafts will inevitably crack, leaving the ground around it vulnerable to whatever chemical laden water is left there, years after the drilling activity has ceased.
Fullerton residents are encouraged to attend the symposium on Sept. 23, but keep in mind that no critics of the controversial processes were invited to take part in it as part of the panel.
UPDATE; Here are details about the event from the organizers, including links to a parking map, instructions for registering for attendance, and how to watch it live at home…
Doors open at 5:30pm and the program will begin at 6:00 pm.
Register:
To guarantee a seat please R.S.V.P. Closing on Friday, September 19th, 5PM.
Audience members are encouraged to submit questions to the panelists. Questions can be submitted in advance via this website, or may be emailed directly to frackingsymp@fullerton.edu.
Parking:
Free parking will be made available in the State College Parking Structure (SCPS) located on State college two blocks north of Nutwood Ave. This structure is the nearest to the TSU and parking opens at 5pm. If the structure is at capacity, you will be redirected to Lot A (see map). You are strongly encouraged to carpool.
http://www.fullerton.edu/campusmap/CampusMap.htm
Live Video Streaming:
Live video stream available on September 23. http://titancom.fullerton.edu/broadcast/LiveWebTV_comm_flash.html
And with mobile device using the iFullerton app for Android and Apple devices.
This program will be also cablecast live on the Titan channel:
Time Warner Cable channel 15-202 (in Fullerton) and some of the participating cities in Orange County (Check with T.W.C.)
AT&T-Uverse (Southern California) Channel 99/City of Santa Ana/TitanTV Channel CSUF
fullertonrag.com 
” . . . but he evidently did not consider that the old concrete lining well shafts will inevitably crack, leaving the ground around it vulnerable to whatever chemical laden water is left there, years after the drilling activity has ceased.”
There are literally tens of thousands of well shafts in LA/OC. If this is really the crux of the argument regarding why we shouldn’t stick holes in the ground, I’m afraid you’re a little late.
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But the new danger is that a mix of acidizing chemicals flushed down the well will leak out of the cracked lining of the shaft.
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Acid doesn’t flow up. Neither do chemicals. Neither does hydrocarbon for that matter (which has plenty of nasties just as bad as any fracking fluid.) If it indeed does, you’ve already got 50-60 year old well casings in the ground, so, again, you’re a little late.
But, make no mistake– putting hydrofluoric acid anywhere near someone’s home is asinine.
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“Acid doesn’t flow up. Neither do chemicals. Neither does hydrocarbon for that matter”
I have to go with Matt on this one.
I was thinking about this, and that wells are designed to extract things. A little Google-fu and sure enough, the fracking chemicals don’t have to flow up, they’re pumped out. I read one EPA estimate that 15-80% of the fracking fluid (the water & chemical cocktail) is recovered and either recycled or disposed of, though other sources indicated 50-60% as a ceiling. Still, that’s a lot of stuff. And it’s big business.
http://www.frontierosi.com/services/saltwater-disposal-recovery/
“A typical multi-stage frac process uses at least 100,000 barrels of fresh water. When this water “flows back” it is salty and must be transported away from the drilling site and disposed of in a permitted disposal well. The need for disposal of flow-back water occurs only during the drilling of a new well, however flow-back water disposal is often the second-largest expense of drilling a new well.”
In this upbeat Marathon Oil promo, it’s right around the 5:00 mark that they talk about fluid recovery. I mean, it’s right there in the promo.
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Waste water disposal really has nothing uniquely to do with fracking. Normal oil wells produce water that must also be disposed of as part of the drilling and production process. Click on any of the wells here to see a register of oil and water barrels produced by normal wells: http://www.conservation.ca.gov/dog/Pages/WellFinder.aspx
For example, this well next to St. Jude: http://opi.consrv.ca.gov/opi/opi.dll/Search?UsrP_ID=100100100&WMtr_APINumber=05905401
You’ll note it actually produced more water than oil during its life. in fact, it produced almost 9 MILLION GALLONS of water (one oil well!). This stuff is typically re-injected into the oil reservoir to enhance production. It’s been done this way for a very, very long time. This is water that’s stored concurrently with hydrocarbon and couldn’t be used for drinking purposes. You’ll forgive me if I’m not impressed by the 100,000 gallons cited to frack a well.
In any case, I don’t think there’s going to be any flowback traveling upwards in a cracked well casing after production completes fifty years from now in an abandoned well, which is Matt’s argument (as presented here.)
Anyway, as I’ve stated before, if you want to pick a bone with acidizing or fracking, pick your bone as close to the surface as you can. Storage and transport of hazardous chemicals– HF in particular– in residential communities is as good a bone to pick as any.
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Yes, but I am not talking about waste water disposal at all, I think you know my concern has always been potential contamination of aquifers by fracking fluid, and that it frequently contains undisclosed compounds.
I have no particular expectation that fracking juice is going to reemerge decades later, but over a period of months with a new well, as they progressively fracture from the end of the hole back up towards the well head there is presumably an opportunity for leakage via these events. I assume it would not be dissimilar when stimulating existing wells.
As Carl Overmeyer posted, it appears that leaking wells are the source of migration into aquifers, not the fractured shale itself. It’s great if fracturing doesn’t post an inherent risk to aquifers.That means the source of the problem, at least in the cases of shoddily constructed wells, is lack of vigilance, both regulatory and corporate – so you can understand my continued skepticism.
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Agreed. No excuse for shoddy work on a well.
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