Fracking Under Lewisville Lake

Now our Idiots that run the country want to start leasing land under Lewisville Lake to Companies to start fracking. What could possible go wrong ? And there is not a whole lot we a citizens we can do about it. I guess if it causes the already leaking dam to break they will make it all right huh? Or if it poisons the drinking water that will be OK to.

The dam is fine. I've talked to many people over this matter. It's getting repaired, the media thru it all out of wack. Fracking is a whole other issue. I'm not in favor.

Relax, it will be fine. There is 3 pages of posts about this in the Crappie section.

If you have Netflix, I recommend you watch the movie "Fracknation". It may allay your concerns, or at least give you an alternate view.

I don't see anyone crying about paying $1.40ish at the gas pumps...I guess y'all want to stop all fracing and just buy the oil from OPEC!
If fracing was such a big problem, the Permian basin would have imploded into a giant sink hole years ago. There's a lot a good folks that depend on the oil and gas business and the impacts don't stop at just the guys doing the work....Look at Skeeter boats, they've even backed off giving away 2 boats this year at the owners tournament.
Frac it, and Frac it now!!

I been in West Texas now since 1975 and so far we have not fallen in, BUT there are some sink holes out here and one near Wink is somewhat scary at times .

Wink Sink Hole

Fracing is done primarily for natural gas. There's some oil, but that's not the main objective there.

I'm taking a course in oil & gas law this semester. We're getting alot of information on how drilling, pumping etc works (you can't write a good mineral lease if you don't understand the subject matter after all). The more I learn about fracing, the more it unsettles me.

Tell the Eagle-Ford oil producers they are fracing for natural gas.

Yeah, well go read the Dallas Morning News Article on the Crappie site (Lewisville Lake Fracking Thread) if you think..."It's all fine".

Uhh...When gas prices are low, natural gas drilling declines. When gas prices go up a lot, then gas drilling increases. So your argument about people complaining about fracking because gas is low kind of makes zero sense. Fracking's got nothing to do with gas prices. Saudi Arabia has a lot to do with gas prices.

Get to learning! ;-)

Sir, fracing is not primarily done in gas wells.

Do you really think all the production in the Eagle Ford, Bakken and Ok is drilling for gas?

Drilling for nat gas is not economic in today's commodity prices. You are after oil or condensate in this environment and you are fracing each and every one of those oil wells.

Remember how deep these wells are being fraced folks.

Fracing isn't causing these earth quakes etc.

Don't believe all the Michael Moore liberal bull [censored].

greed & waste of our clean water

its a horrible practice

An article can be written to swing either direction. I did read the article, and had a good laugh. I have been in this business for many years, and I wont deny that there are some inherent risks to drilling and completing a well. Everything has inherent risks, and problems can happen, that's where good risk assessment and mitigation procedures come in. That holds true for any type of operation. What would you rather have, a nuclear power plant across the street from your house or a gas well? If I were a citizen of that area, I would be more concerned with other areas of the drilling and completion process than I would the frac.

Fracing has been used since the 1960's and never a complaint till the liberal tree huggers and rock lickers heard about it. Do a little research on fracturing and learn the truth, not what you learn reading liberal BS.

The Austin chalk in Caldwell County, Texas has been fraced forever and not a problem one and those wells are only 1800 to 2300 feet deep.

not to mention there are several operators that are fracing with produced water and not freshwater.

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I apologize for not being as educated as Flower Mound residents.
I was simply trying to reference that fracing is used for both oil and gas here in our great state. In the Barnett Shale, more fracing has been done for NG, but other areas do it for oil. This is why OPEC has told the US to 'heck' with oil production caps and continue pumping at record levels...a direct attack on oil prices to intentionally hurt US oil and gas production.
There are thousands of individuals that have lost their jobs over the last 6 - 9 months tied directly to the reduction of drilling. New leases provide new opportunities to put the people back to work. Even if the leasing is approved, there's probably a 50/50 chance the wells actually get drilled.
There's a lot of good folks that aren't as well off as you are.

Not everyone is as well off as you are.

Fracing first of all is not spelled with a K except by the liberal media. I was at a seminar a couple of years ago at SMU that T Boone Pickens spoke at, he said that yes Fracing was new, when he started in the Oil Patch in 1949, that was his first Frac job in 1949. Fracing is what has enabled gasoline and diesel prices to come down. This country in the first time in many many years came close to producing all of the oil it needed. The Middle East got scared of this and opened the valves to run the US Oil Producer out of business. Now we have had over 250,000 people in the United States lose their jobs while everybody is enjoying the cheap gasoline and diesel. Natural Gas prices have never recovered from the bust in 2008. There is very few wells being drilled in the Barnett at this time due to the low price of Natural Gas. The BLM might not even get a bid on the property going under Lake Lewisville. Yes back in the beginning of the Oil Industry there was some water contamination, this was in the time frame from 1856 (when the first well was drilled in PA by Drake) to the mid 1930's. Since that point there has been very little contamination, it costs the oil companies to much, they are in business to make money. They have stock holders to answer to. The media and Hollywood do not like this, they play it up in order to sell tickets. All of us in the Oil Patch love the land and water as much if not more than anybody else. We are out there 24 hours a day looking at nature. How many times has the media came down on the Farmer or Rancher, the Oil Patch is the same way. I have been in it since 1978, its been a good life but I want to pass on to my children and grandchildren a better earth than what I received. Just my 2 cents.

Agreed ChuChu and actually fracing has been going on for about twice that time.
Before, it was mainly referred to as well stimulation. Guess what... The're still stimulating the wells aka fracing.

If you read the Dallas Morning News news story, how come you didn't address the primary topic of the story?

Trust me, the Middle East doesn't care about US Fracking operations. They dropped their oil prices to put pressure on Iran, and Syria. They are intentionally trying to disrupt those countries' revenue streams, due to ongoing hostilities over there.

It appears the primary topic was the dam, which I addressed on the other thread. The secondary topic appears to be contamination which I addressed, and others added to.

What is the single worst fear you will have if they do drill these wells?

I think the thing to be most concerned with regarding hydraulic fracturing for natural gas is groundwater contamination. Once contaminated, there is really no way to clean it up. Look up Bradford County, PA. Fracing contaminated people's well water there. And it wasn't some shady fly by night operator, the suspected well belongs to Chesapeake Energy.

TCK73,

No, none of what you mentioned above was the primary topic contained in the Dallas Morning News investigative news article that came out last week, and which is easily found on the Crappie forum thread on the same Fracking subject.

You want to know what concerns me if they do drill these wells under Lewisville Lake? Just take a look at D Miner's post above, and you have my answer.

And to everyone on this post that says "It's fine." or "It's being drilled down to 11,000 feet so nothing to worry about." or "They cement the zones where leaking could occur, so there's nothing to worry about."

To all of those statements made, telling people there's nothing to worry about, I present you all with the following information published just last week in the Dallas Morning News:

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DALLAS – A WFAA investigation of water contamination in the sprawling Barnett Shale natural gas field has uncovered what appear to be numerous violations by drillers apparently ignoring mandates to seal wells with cement in order to protect groundwater.

The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas activities, says it exercises appropriate oversight over drillers and is unaware of any documented case of a hydraulically fractured oil or gas well contaminating underground drinking water.

Presented with WFAA’s findings -- which center on gas and oil wells drilled in Palo Pinto and Montague counties -- Cyrus Reed with the Lone Star Sierra Club says since the three elected Railroad Commissioners get roughly half of their campaign contributions from oil and gas industry insiders, enforcement is not a priority.

“I’m accusing them of being influenced by that money, and it clouding their judgment,” he said.

A commission spokeswoman declined to comment on the role of campaign money in enforcement.

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So basically, here's my issue. If you can prove to me that you're abiding by the drilling regulations and cementing the wells the way you're supposed to, then my concerns are largely alleviated. HOWEVER... When investigations uncover numerous sites where the cementing was not done, and they got away with it, that's when you lose all of my trust. Drillers haven't demonstrated they can be trusted.

That Is one hell of a problem.

+1.
I love when people that do not understand or even know about the process comment because of what the media and everyone else blows fracking waaaayyyy outta sorts!!!