Although the practice of hydraulic fracturing, "fracking," in connection with drilling for oil or natural gas has been generating controversy in much of the country for some time, Humboldt County hasn't yet been identified as a potential location for oil or natural gas drilling using the fracking method.
However, two parcels in Lander County were recently put up for oil and gas lease sale by the BLM. Residents in the southern part of Lander County were concerned the exploration lease sale could lead to the fracking method being used in the county and protested the lease. They requested Lander County Commissioners to support their opposition to fracking by lodging a county protest, which they did.
Humboldt County Commissioners took the Nevada Division of Minerals up on an offer the agency recently made to explain hydraulic fracturing, its history, current use, and the development of regulations. The information was presented in Winnemucca Aug. 4 by Richard Perry, administrator for the Nevada Division of Minerals.
By way of history, Perry said oil production in the state hit a high point of four million barrels of oil in the early 1990s and has declined since. Last year, oil production in Nevada was 335,672 barrels for the entire year. For comparison, Texas oil production is 2.8 million barrels a day.
Nye and Eureka counties have the only producing oil wells in the state currently. There are no commercial natural gas wells.
It was Noble Oil's Elko County leasing and fracking activity that triggered a need to update the regulations, said Perry. The 2013 Nevada Legislature required the Division of Minerals and the Division of Environmental Protection to develop a program and hydraulic fracturing regulations that would assess the effects of fracking on Nevada's water, require any person or company applying for a fracking permit to disclose each chemical used, and provide notice to the public concerning activities relating to fracking in the state.
The agencies took "a very methodical approach" to developing the new regulations, Perry said. They reviewed the regulations of 32 current oil-producing states along with the BLM's proposed rule on hydraulic fracturing and discussed what works and does not work with regulators in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Kansas, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Utah. Public comments from March workshops held in Carson City, Elko and Las Vegas were also considered in development of the program and regulations.
Updates of Nevada's regulations is complete with a final review scheduled Aug. 28 at a meeting to be held in the Elko County Courthouse. Implementation of the program and regulations is scheduled to be adopted Jan. 1, 2015.
An application for drilling a well where hydraulic fracturing stimulation is to be used will require applicants to:
• Evaluate land ownership, current wells, groundwater levels and geology for an "Area of Review" one mile around all drilling activity.
• Sample and monitor groundwater baselines for up to four existing water wells before and after the fracking process.
• Analyze water for the presence of dissolved inorganic and organics as well as dissolved gases. Post-fracking samples have limits requiring notification if hydrocarbons are present.
• Put in place an intermediate casing so there are two layers of protection in the zone of groundwater.
• Pressure test production casing for required tolerances.
• Cement the production casing to 500 feet above the uppermost zone of hydrocarbons.
A 14-day notification to nearby landowners or residents is required before commencing hydraulic fracturing. A notice of the fracking plan and what chemicals will be used is required. The Division of Mineral Resources can deny use of any chemical it deems detrimental to the protection of fresh water. Pressures must be recorded throughout the process and all flow-back liquids must be contained in steel tanks with a flow-back disposal plan that must be approved.
The approved permits with conditions of approval will be posted at http//minerals.nv.gov/.
Addressing the issue of how much water is used in the fracking process, Perry said the three wells in Nevada that have used fracking to stimulate oil production have used 250,000, 346,000, and 209,000 acre-feet of water each.
For comparison, a domestic well is two acre-feet of water a year - a typical irrigation pivot uses 400-600 acre-feet a year. Any application to use water in fracking has to go through the same water rights application and allocation process as any other use.
Humboldt County Commisioners didn't have many questions for Perry, nor were there any residents present who commented or questioned officials. The entire Nevada Division of Minerals update on hydraulic fracturing in Nevada is available on their website, http//minerals.nv.gov/.
Joyce Sheen can be reached at j.sheen@winnemuccapublishing.net.
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