Hydraulic Oil Tanks

After a 10-year moratorium, the Fort Worth City Council appears poised to approve locating underground wastewater disposal wells inside the city in areas zoned I, J, and K.

They could be 1,000 feet from a protected use -- such as your home -- but would require council approval if they were closer than 1,000 feet. Also called "saltwater" wells, these are dump sites for the cocktail of water, sand and fluid used in natural gas hydraulic fracturing operations. There is evidence that some of the "frack" fluids in this wastewater are toxic.

The question is "What has changed that would prompt the city to consider allowing the placement of such wells?" Ironically, there appear to be more concerns now about the wastewater produced in the fracking process and the disposal wells than there were even five years ago.

In early August, the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission banned fracking disposal wells in central Arkansas, near the communities of Greenbrier and Guy and for a 1,150 square mile radius because of earthquakes. A state geologist reported evidence that certain earthquakes occurred when massive amounts of waste were put in disposal wells in the affected area.

Willis: Fort Worth still not place for wastewater disposal wells - Fort Worth Star Telegram

Which would you rather have in the view from your house? A thing about the size of a domestic garage, or eight towers twice the height of Nelson’s column with blades noisily thrumming the air.

The energy they can produce over ten years is similar: eight wind turbines of 2.5-megawatts (working at roughly 25% capacity) roughly equal the output of an average Pennsylvania shale gas well (converted to electricity at 50% efficiency) in its first ten years.

Let’s make it easier. The gas well can be hidden in a hollow, behind a hedge. The eight wind turbines must be on top of hills, because that is where the wind blows, visible for up to 40 miles. And they require the construction of new pylons marching to the towns; the gas well is connected by an underground pipe.

Wind turbines slice thousands of birds of prey in half every year, including white-tailed eagles in Norway, golden eagles in California, wedge-tailed eagles in Tasmania. There’s a video on Youtube of one winging a griffon vulture in Crete. According to a study in Pennsylvania, a wind farm with eight turbines would kill about a 200 bats a year. The pressure wave from the passing blade just implodes the little creatures’ lungs. You and I can go to jail for harming bats or eagles; wind companies are immune.

The hidden facts over Wind Farms - The Way

A Houston-based oil and gas drilling contractor, Integrated Production Services, has pleaded guilty to a negligent violation of the Clean Water Act and has agreed to pay penalties totaling $162,000 to federal and state agencies.

The case stemmed from the spilling of 400 to 700 gallons of hydrochloric acid — a chemical used in the controversial drilling practice of “fracking”  — into a creek in eastern Oklahoma in 2007.

In a news release , the U.S. Justice Department said a tank at the natural gas drilling site in Atoka County, Okla., leaked the acid at the well, which was flooded due to heavy rain. Authorities said Gabriel Henson, a company supervisor, first failed to clean up the spill and then drove a pickup truck through the well’s earthen berm, causing the acid to flow into the creek.

Henson previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of the Clean Water Act and is awaiting sentencing. He faces up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. His company, in addition to paying the $162,000 in penalties, will serve two years of probation and will be required to train its employees in hazardous waste handling and in spill response procedures.

Fracking Contractor Pleads Guilty to Violating Clean Water Act - FairWarning

HOUSTON, Texas , October 13, 2011 (ENS) - A Houston-based natural gas and oil drilling contractor pleaded guilty Tuesday to a negligent violation of the Clean Water Act in federal court in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

In entering the plea, Integrated Production Services has agreed to pay a $140,000 criminal fine and to make a community service payment of $22,000 to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation for ecological studies and remediation of Boggy Creek, located in eastern Oklahoma.

Integrated Production Services will serve a two-year period of probation, during which it will be required to implement and perform an environmental compliance program at a cost of $38,000, to train IPS employees regarding proper hazardous waste handling and spill response procedures.

In May 2007, IPS was performing drilling operations at the Pettigrew natural gas well site in Atoka County, Oklahoma. The company's operations included hydraulic fracturing, which entails the use of drills and hydrochloric acid to penetrate through bedrock and substrata in order to access natural gas reserves.

Fracking Contractor Pleads Guilty to Criminal Acid Discharge - Environment News Service

MIDLAND, Texas, Oct 13, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- STW Resources Holding Corp. ("STW Resources") (otcqb:STWS), a water reclamation services company, today announced that it has executed a joint venture agreement with CK Investments Energy Company, a Texas corporation ("CKI") to commission a proprietary brackish/produced water processing facility in the Permian and Delaware Basins of West Texas.

CKI is an energy investment company with major holdings including B&K Trucking ("BKT"). BKT is one of the premier water transportation and frac tank rental companies with operations throughout the Permian and Delaware Basins of West Texas. BKT's customer base includes many of the major oil companies, including a strong working relationship with the largest oil producer in the state. BKT's water transportation is engaged in transporting both fresh and brine water for oilfield uses such as drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

Texas is facing a drought of historic proportions, accompanied with large population growth and increased demands on fresh water supplies. STW Resources will be implementing proprietary technologies that will take brackish and/or produced water and will process the otherwise unusable water to fresh water status.

There are over 800,000 billion gallons of water in the salty aquifers of Texas. STW Resources' system will process approximately 20,000 to 30,000 barrels per day, or 840,000-1,260,000 gallons per day.

STW Resources Holding Corp. and CK Investments Energy Company Form a Joint ... - MarketWatch (press release)