High water use, contamination top list of shale gas concerns

High water use, contamination top list of shale gas concerns by Mike De Souza, October 24, 2011. Postmedia News
Water use and contamination are at the top of the list of environmental concerns surrounding shale gas exploration in Canada, Environment Minister Peter Kent was told earlier this year in an internal memorandum released on Monday. The advice, drafted by Environment Canada’s top bureaucrat and deputy minister, Paul Boothe…noted that most sites are using millions of litres of water and hundreds of thousands of litres of unidentified chemicals that are injected in the ground at high pressure to extract natural gas from shale rock formations. “There is potential for water contamination from the use and disposal of drilling muds and fracturing fluids,” Boothe wrote in the memo to Kent, dated March 8, 2011. “There is also a risk of natural gas or saltwater from the formation leaking into surface water, water wells or water aquifers.” [Emphasis added]