Expert Elicitation of Trends in Marcellus Oil and Gas Wastewater Management
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 5
Abstract
Prerequisite to detailed risk analyses of flowback and produced water management from unconventional resource extraction is the thorough characterization of wastewater management strategies, treatment technologies, prices, and future developments. This expert elicitation compares professional responses on current practices and future trends in wastewater management from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus formation across the oil and gas sector, the wastewater treatment sector, and the regulatory sector. Although expert judgments were highly influenced by the respondent’s role in unconventional resource development, the results of this expert elicitation suggest that water reuse is not inhibited by high concentrations of total dissolved solids, that waste transport accounts for the majority of the cost associated with off-site wastewater treatment and disposal, and that prices for commercial wastewater treatment are likely to drop over the next five years. Taken together, these results indicate that long-term water reuse is a viable strategy for oil and gas wastewater management among companies with continuous or near continuous drilling operations and that future risk analyses of oil and gas wastewater management should concentrate on reuse activity. The results also suggest that expanding economical water reuse practices to companies that drill fewer sequential or spatially clustered wells may require regulatory or policy intervention.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the experts that participated in this study for their time and assistance. The authors also acknowledge colleagues Venkatesh Narayanamurti, Laura Diaz Anadon, and Sarah Jordaan for their support of the work. This work was supported by Consortium for Energy Policy Research (founded through a gift from Royal Dutch Shell), the Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group (funded via a grant from British Petroleum) both at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a grant from the Electric Power Research Institute.
References
Abramzon, S., Samaras, C., Curtright, A., Litovitz, A., and Burger, N. (2013). “Estimating the consumptive use costs of shale natural gas extraction on Pennsylvania roadways.” J. Infrastruct. Syst., in press.
Arthur, J. D., Uretsky, M., and Wilson, P. (2010). “Water resources and use for hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus shale region.” 〈http://www.all-llc.com/publicdownloads/WaterResourcePaperALLConsulting.pdf〉 (Jun. 01, 2012).
Aviva, L., Aimee, C., Shmuel, A., Nicholas, B., and Constantine, S. (2013). “Estimation of regional air-quality damages from Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction in Pennsylvania.” Environ. Res. Lett., 8(1), 014017–014025.
Cawley, J. (2012). “Governor’s Marcellus shale advisory commission report.” Office of the Lieutenant Governor, Harrisburg, PA.
Keith, D. (1996). “When is it appropriate to combine expert judgments?” Clim. Change, 33(2), 139–143.
Krancer, M. (2011). “Correspondence between the PADEP and the US EPA on PA code chapter 95 regulations.” Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection, Harrisburg, PA.
Mauter, M. S., Palmer, V., Tang, Y., and Behrer, A. P. (2013). “The next frontier in United States shale gas and tight oil extraction: Strategic reduction of environmental impacts.” Belfer center for science and international affairs discussion paper series, Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA.
Meyer, M. A., and Brooker J. M. (1991). “Eliciting and analyzing expert judgment: A practical guide.” Academic Press, London.
Olmstead, S. M., Muehlenbachs, L. A., Shih, J.-S., Chu, Z., and Krupnick, A. J. (2013). “Shale gas development impacts on surface water quality in Pennsylvania.” Proc., Nat. Acad. Sci., 110(13), 4962–4967.
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. (2010). “Dam permit for a centralized impoundment dam for oil and gas wells.” Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Pennsylvania Bureau of Oil and Gas Management, and Pennsylvania Bureau of Waterways Engineering, Harrisburg, PA.
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. (2012). “PADEP oil and gas reporting website.” 〈https://www.paoilandgasreporting.state.pa.us/publicreports/Modules/Welcome/Welcome.aspx〉 (May 15, 2012).
Phillips, S. (2011). “Where are PA’s deep injection wells? StateImpact.” National Public Radio, 〈http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2011/09/22/burning-question-where-are-pas-deep-injection-wells/〉 (Sep. 01, 2012).
Prozzi, J., Grebenschikov, S., Banerjee, A., and Prozzi, J. (2011). “Impacts of energy developments on the Texas transportation system infrastructure.” Center for Transportation Research, Univ. of Texas, Austin.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2009). DRAFT expert elicitation task force white paper, USEPA Science Policy Council, Washington, DC.
U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2012). Annual energy outlook 2012, Washington, DC.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2012a). “Class II wellsoil and gas related injection wells.” 〈http://www.water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/class2/〉 (Mar. 2, 2013).
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2012b). “Key documents about mid-Atlantic oil and gas extraction.” 〈http://www.epa.gov/region03/marcellus_shale/#wastewater〉 (May 3, 2013).
Veil, J. (2010). “Water management technologies used by Marcellus shale gas producers.” Argonne National Laboratory, Dept. of Energy, Lemont, IL.
Wilson, J. M., and VanBriesen, J. M. (2012). “Oil and gas produced water management and surface drinking water sources in Pennsylvania.” Environ. Pract., 14(4), 288–300.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 5 • May 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 5, 2013
Accepted: Nov 21, 2013
Published online: Feb 6, 2014
Published in print: May 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Jul 6, 2014
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.