|
A couple of weeks ago, I gave another of my periodic lectures at the local science museum. The lectures cover energy industry-related topics and, occasionally, tangential topics, such as plate tectonics and earthquakes (no, I did not attribute the majority of earthquake activity to fracturing). I have no way of judging how good the lectures are, but the topics generate a fair bit of commentary and questions. It’s this interaction that leads me to believe that, although we have been trying a lot harder lately, our story is still not understood, much less believed.
The latest lecture dealt with the water intensity of the various energy options. Biofuels, for example, are water-intensive to the extreme, using, by some estimates, between 1,000 and 5,000 liters of water to produce a liter of biofuel. Nuclear energy comes in second, mainly through water usage to cool reactors. Oil and gas are somewhat benign when it comes to water intensity—compared to biofuels and nuclear energy—but water, be it produced water or frac water, is still a big issue. Explaining the options to handle produced and frac flowback water (and frac water sourcing) to a group of intelligent, but highly skeptical and generally misinformed individuals is akin to explaining nuclear physics to a 14-year-old. While the ability to comprehend is there, the interest in understanding is not.
At these presentations, questions and comments run the gamut. Below are fairly literal exchanges from recent lectures.
Q. Why don’t the oil and gas companies clean up all the water they produce, so we can use it (it would solve the pending water crisis, driven by population expansion)?
A. They clean up what they can reasonably process, especially for frac flowback water re-use. However, the cost per barrel is much too high, and the volumes are much too large, to clean every gallon when compared to the subsurface disposal option.
Q. Okay, but I still think they should clean it up for us to use.
A. There are other problems associated with that idea. For instance, failure to replace reservoir fluids on a major scale would most likely lead to severe subsidence, often in populated areas.
Q. Okay, but, still, like why don’t they clean all that water up?
A. Because, it was never part of the water supply in the first place.
Comment: Yeah, but they could clean it up—right?
Response: Yes they could. In fact they plan to. It’s part of the scheme to explore for oil and gas on Jupiter. They will ship the extra clean water there to use for pending human development of the planet.
Comment: Really? That’s cool.
Then there is the frac water conversation. This is almost guaranteed to occur.
Comment: I think it’s terrible what fracing does!
Response: Really, what does it do?
Comment: Yeah, well, it—uh—you know, it’s like poison and can get in drinking water and kill you, like it did to those people in Michigan or somewhere.
Response: What makes you think that “fracturing” is poisonous?
Comment: Well, it has toxic stuff in it, and it can explode, too.
Response: Frac fluid does have chemicals in it, some of which you use in your kitchen. Others are mildly toxic, if you were to consume very large amounts by drinking gallons and gallons of frac fluid. You don’t drink frac fluid do you?
Comment: Huh—I mean, no, I don’t drink fracturing fluid, but, like, that’s what I mean. That fracturing fluid could get in your drinking water. And, it could explode, too. That’s what happened in Minnesota.
Response: There are two issues here—fracturing fluid toxicity and the chance that gas might appear in drinking water. As already mentioned, toxicity is not really an issue. On the other hand, explosions due to gas entrained in drinking water have occurred. However, no instances can be definitely proven to have occurred, due to oil and gas wells leaking into sources of drinking water. Rather, gas in potable water is likely from shallow gas-bearing formations untapped by the oil and gas industry.
Comment: Right. So water explodes where there are oil and gas wells. I knew it!!!
And, my favorite comment, received as a nasty shot, as I entered the room to give my lecture a few years ago in Seattle:
Comment: I hate the oil and gas industry. I hope that the price of oil doubles and then doubles again, so that the price will skyrocket, and no one will ever buy gasoline again, and the oil and gas companies will disappear!!
Response: That’s an interesting concept. Of course, you realize that a four-fold price increase in the most commonly used fuel and chemical feedstock would force other prices, including those for almost all goods and services, through the roof, which, in turn, would bankrupt the national and global economies, and lead to total worldwide chaos.
Comment: Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.
And, so it goes with our attempts to educate the public. We will get there—it will just take a while. 
|
