Entries by Matt Kelso, BA

Ohio River Barium Concentration Trending Upward

The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) has been testing the main stem of the Ohio River for the presence of a variety of metals for some time, with results since 1998 published at their website. Mappable versions (1) of this data from 2010 are now posted on FracTracker’s DataTool as well. Over the […]

Greene County Man Charged with Wastewater Dumping

  The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office released a statement yesterday, saying that criminal charges have been filed against Robert Allen Shipman from Green County and his company, Allen’s Waste Water Services, Inc., for allegedly dumping millions of gallons of waste, including gas drilling waste, in six southwestern Pennsylvania counties between 2003 and 2009. There are […]

Quebec Bans Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas

According to the Montreal Gazette, Quebec’s Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) has banned the hydraulic fracturing technique of stimulating oil and gas wells throughout the province. Details are not yet posted on the English section of the BAPE website. According to the article, the ban is in place immediately, but does not affect the […]

Two Tales of Radioactivity

There’s a disagreement brewing about whether or not there are radioactive materials in the Marcellus Shale wastewater. On February 26, 2011, Ian Urbina’s New York Times article reported: Of more than 179 wells producing wastewater with high levels of radiation, at least 116 reported levels of radium or other radioactive materials 100 times as high […]

PA Marcellus Shale Production by Municipality

Marcellus Shale production by municipality. The darker red municipalities have higher production, illustrating that gas production in these gas wells comes in “hot spots”, particularly in the northeast and in the southwest. It is no secret that there is money to be made in the natural gas industry, not only for the industry, but for […]

Updated Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale Production Information

Updated Marcellus Shale well production data for the period between July 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010 is now available on the DEP website and FracTracker’s DataTool. This data is self-reported by the drilling operators, and includes production in the following categories: Natural Gas: Production in thousands of cubic feet (Mcf) Condensate: Production in barrels […]

Updated Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale Waste Information

Mixed total of waste produced by Marcellus Shale gas wells between July 1 and December 31, 2010. For more information on specific wells, click the blue “i” button, then click on one of the purple dots. Self reported Marcellus Shale waste data for the period between July 1 and December 31, 2010 is now available […]

EPA Announces Hydraulic Fracturing Webinar

    On Wednesday March 2, 2011, the US Environmental Protection Agency will be hosting a webinar regarding its hydraulic fracturing drinking water study plan from 7:00 to 8:00 PM, Eastern Standard Time. If you are interested, you should register for the online event now, as space is limited to 1,000 participants. This is a […]

Pennsylvania’s DCNR Shale Thickness Datasets Added to DataTool

Three Belt Thickness of Devonian Black Shales. Click image for a larger dynamic view. Three datasets from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) have been added to FracTracker’s DataTool.  Each dataset indicates the thickness of a major carbon-rich black shale layer from the Devonian Period in Pennsylvania, including the Marcellus, Rhinestreet, and […]

Data Accessibility and Usability Index

While anyone with a registered user account can put data up on FractTracker’s DataTool, sometimes finding and collecting relevant data in a usable form is more difficult than it should be. I have examined datasets from a wide variety of places (1) and agencies, and after encountering numerous issues, I have devised a grading scheme […]