8 Things
8 Things The Natural Gas Companies Don’t Want You to Know
1. Horizontal Drilling is NOT an environmentally safe
process.
This kind of drilling has been going on for years in other states around the country, including Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Alabama, and Texas. Each state has documented evidence of serious environmental impacts, including groundwater contamination, from horizontal drilling practices.
Source:
- http://www.earthworksaction.org/pubs/LOguideCh1.pdf
2. Hydraulic fracturing (fracking), the process by which huge quantities of water, sand, and chemicals are used to “stimulate” gas production in a well, can involve the use of a number of cancer-causing substances
and reproductive toxins.
Chemicals like benzene, toluene, naphthalene, and xylene can be present in fracking fluid. Fracking fluid CANNOT be completely removed from the well and can end up contaminating drinking water – yours, your neighbor’s, and even the town’s.
Sources:
- http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/products/chemicals_used_in_natural_gas
- _development.html
- http://www.propublica.org/feature/new-yorks-gas-rush-poses-environmental-threat-722
- http://s3.amazonaws.com/propublica/assets/natural_gas/colburn_testimony_071025.pdf
3. Fracking fluid is currently exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act and Community Right-to-Know Laws, as a result of industry lobbying.
The gas industry, under current law, does not have to tell landowners or government officials what chemicals are contained in fracking fluid. Even though research has indicated that very dangerous chemicals are found in fracking fluid, the industry maintains that the formulas are “trade secrets.”
Sources:
- https://www.policyarchive.org/bitstreamihandle/l0207 /2407/RL32873_20050506.pdf?sequence=1
- http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/upload/Too-Wild-to-Drill-Hydraulic-
- Fracturing-Threatens-Driniking-Water.pdf
4. Water that comes out of drilling sites is considered
toxic.
In spite of this, drillers have been known to store this water in pits on the landowner’s
property. Even if these pits are lined, the water can contaminate soil and drinking water. Animals, including pets, livestock, and wildlife, can die from drinking it. It also gives off dangerous fumes.
Source:
- http://www.earthworksaction.org/pubs/LOguideChl.pdf)
5. The natural gas companies are making plans to ship our natural gas overseas, where they can make a larger profit.
So if we gamble our water, land, and air quality, we are unlikely to benefit from lower energy costs. They are planning to exploit our area for their own gain.
Source:
- Transcript of Chesapeake Energy investor update, http://seekingalpha.com/article/88789-chesapeake-energy-corp-q2- 2008-earnings-call-transcript?page=7
6. You have rights.
Clean water and air are basic human rights.
7. So does your neighbor.
Protect your neighbor’s water, land, and health
as you would your own. Remember, this is the person who helped you during the
flood.
8. Worried? You’re not alone.
Many other people in town - and the entire Southern Tier – are very concerned about what could happen to our area as a result of natural gas drilling. If we band together, we can make ourselves heard. Learn all you can. Talk to your neighbors. Fight for home.
I have been seeing some articles about drilling, and heard a little about it from the neighbors. I have 42 acres, but have not been approached by anyone to drill my land. Then saw an article in the Daily Star that said my town Edmeston is almost entirely leased to the gas companies. I have some questions:
1. Do the gas co.s have right of way to drill on my land, or do they have to get my permission?
2. What happens if my neighbor allows drilling, but I don’t, and my now perfect water becomes polluted?
3.What is this about being charged by the gas co.s to get the gas beneath my land? Very confusing.
Any help would be appreciated. Do you have meetings? Thanks! Kathy
Brian’s reply:
There is something called “mandatory inclusion,” or “compulsory inclusion.” There are subtleties to it (although they are about as subtle as a sledge hammer to the head).
Essentially, if a certain proportion of the land adjacent to yours has been leased, then the bastards can drill under (not on) your land. If it happens, it would probably be thousands of feet down, but that does not make it safe, or fair.
It doesn’t mean that they would do it, just that they could. I would not jump to any conclusions, though. There are many factors involved.
My land is in exactly the same situation as yours. Some neighbors have signed, some haven’t and we don’t know the proportions. We have perfect water from our well, and want to keep it that way. We also don’t like predatory corporations invading like locusts.
As far as groups,there are many. Check the http://www.squidoo.com/fracbusters
site for more info.
The Oneonta County Gas Group meets:
Date: Feb. 17
Time: 6:30 PM
Location: Embury Room of First United Methodist Church, corner of
Church and Chestnut Sts, Oneonta
They are a great group of people, and it’s a good place to find out more.
This is none too soon. The environmental review process is cranking
along, and new wells will be permitted this coming summer. It’s time
that all of Oneonta and the whole county were talking about hazards that
are just over the horizon.
You are on the right track. Hope to see you at a meeting!
Brian
I have 112 acres that are right in the drilling path. From my research, these companies drill so far below the water in a well that there is no danger, or, too little chance of pollution for it to be a threat. So far, there hasn’t been an incident of water being polluted in NY, and there are thousands of existing wells already in NY.
How can we tell what is true? I can’t believe gas companies just go around polluting wells; they would have been stopped by now.
I don’t want to be dependent on foreign oil-I would love to tell the middle east that we don’t need them anymore.
Who to believe? Where my land is, all of my neighbors will sign, so I will be included, like it or not. How can you tell these people not to allow drilling on their land, when, for them, it would be like asking them to tear up a winning lottery ticket.
Everyone has kids to put through college, favorite charities, bills to pay. How to say no is the question.
Mel,
Those are entirely reasonable concerns and deserve a thoughtful reply. There are very good answers to them, and I’ll try to address them a.s.a.p.
One thing to keep in mind is that gas companies have every reason to lie to you. The profit-motive is their only consideration. There’s nothing wrong with a profit motive, but when it trumps your health, and when it gives them a license to destroy your way of life and scare you into sacrificing it so that some people from out-of-state can manipulate people’s insecurities – well, it’s time to give them a free ticket a place where people don’t care about their country and their heritage.
I’ve talked to a lot of people who could use the money as well as anyone else (I’m one of them) but have weighed the consequences (I’ll mention them in a post, soon) and have come to the reasonable conclusion that this fracking method is not safe yet, and the alleged profit is not all it’s cracked up to be.
I know that the thought of “free money” dangled in front of someone can be very hypnotic. But seriously, do you really believe in “free money?” Anyone who promises that should be trusted about as far as you can spit a rat.
On the other hand, the people who are trying to keep this not-ready-for-prime-time scheme at bay have nothing to gain except exactly what they are saying – they want to keep us safe, and protect our way of life. Not against profit, but against people who would rip the guts out of what makes life worth living for people who love their land, country, heritage, and health, just so a very small minority could collect some money at our expense.
The details of your question deserve to be addressed, and I’ll get to them in the next post.
Thanks for asking serious questions that I’m sure are on many other people’s mind, too.
All the best,
Brian
Mel, be careful of wolves in sheeps clothing offering $$. They have only their best interests in mind, and really don”t care that much about the environmental contamination they cause. There is a Haliburton loophole that permits them freedom in this area.
Most hire out of state employees with no attachment to your natural areas to begin with.
It’s not like the gas companies are hurting and need our support — they control Pennsylvania now–as practically every square inch of wildland and farmland has been sacrificed to them there- and they aren’t even required to pay a severance tax.
Virginia, Colorado, Texas and other states are also under their charm. Land is being offered to them at such an increasing rate than never before in the history of the U.S. The gas companies don’t need your support, but the still uncontaminated land you own–with wildlife– DOES need your support.
I reccomend you Google “Dimock, Pa Fracking disaster” and read about the horrors and permanent gas fracking contamination that occured there recently. Noone wants to buy their homes now–they are forced to live there and their environment, streams, water areas are all permanently contaminated– Livestock dying, fish dying. Methane gas coming out of household faucets,etc. They have to use a water buffalo now to obtain their drinking/cooking and cleaning water.
It doesnt matter how deep they drill — if they make a shortcut along the way to save money and time, a disaster inevitably results. Once contamination occurs, it’s not like you can actually clean it up as you would the Valdez oil spill. It’s permanent.
Many of our legislatures in PA are asking for a temporary moratorium–so that the drillers are made to slow down a little and perfect this fracking method so that we dont have another Dimock, Pa on our hands again.– especially with the excessive amount of land that will be drilled this year as never before in Pa.
Money isn’t everything– the love of money truly is the root of all evil. We need to learn to say No to ourselves and the gas companies- and ignore their lures. It will pay off for you in the long run.
Again, the gas companies don’t need your support- they have more than enough gas at their disposal now, in the U.S. Your up to now uncontaminated acreage needs your support more!
Is the water used for fracking safe? Here’s one ruling from Pennsylvania about some cattle that may have had some contact with the water.
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
07/1/2010
CONTACT:
Justin Fleming, Department of Agriculture
717-787-5085
Cattle from Tioga County Farm Quarantined after Coming in Contact with Natural Gas Drilling Wastewater
HARRISBURG — The Department of Agriculture announced today that it has quarantined cattle from a Tioga County farm after a number of cows came into contact with drilling wastewater from a nearby natural gas operation.
Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said uncertainty over the quantity of wastewater the cattle may have consumed warranted the quarantine in order to protect the public from eating potentially contaminated beef.
“Cattle are drawn to the taste of salty water,” said Redding. “Drilling wastewater has high salinity levels, but it also contains dangerous chemicals and metals. We took this precaution in order to protect the public from consuming any of this potentially contaminated product should it be marketed for human consumption.”
Redding said 28 head of cattle were included in the quarantine, including 16 cows, four heifers and eight calves. Those cattle were out to pasture in late April and early May when a drilling wastewater holding pond on the farm of Don and Carol Johnson leaked, sending the contaminated water into an adjacent field where it created a pool. The Johnsons had noticed some seepage from the pond for as long as two months prior to the leak.
The holding pond was collecting flowback water from the hydraulic fracturing process on a well being drilled by East Resources Inc.
Grass was killed in a roughly 30- x 40-foot area where the wastewater had pooled. Although no cows were seen drinking the wastewater, tracks were found throughout the pool. The wet area extended about 200-300 feet into the pasture.
The cattle had potential access to the pool for a minimum of three days until the gas company placed a snow fence around the pool to restrict access.
Subsequent tests of the wastewater found that it contained chloride, iron, sulfate, barium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium, strontium and calcium.
Redding said the main element of concern is the heavy metal strontium, which can be toxic to humans, especially in growing children. The metal takes a long time to pass through an animal’s system because it is preferentially deposited in bone and released in the body at varying rates, dependent on age, growth status and other factors. Live animal testing was not possible because tissue sampling is required.
The secretary also added that the quarantine will follow the recommended guidelines from the Food Animal Residue Avoidance and Depletion Program, as follows:
• Adult animals: hold from food chain for 6 months.
• Calves exposed in utero: hold from food chain for 8 months.
• Growing calves: hold from food chain for 2 years.
In response to the leak, the Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice of violation to East Resources Inc. and required further sampling and site remediation. DEP is evaluating the final cleanup report and is continuing its investigation of operations at the drilling site, as well as the circumstances surrounding the leaking holding pond.
Hi,
I’m from Cape Town, South Africa. I’m an investigative journalist doing a story on the sudden surge of natural gas exploration licenses here in the Southern Cape and the Karoo. Both are in extremely water stressed areas, rich in biodiversity and archeological sites. We have a number of companies now looking to extract natural gas using the same questionable methods to get farmers in the area on their side. Few own up to how they intend extracting this gas but I would be interested to know if the technology used is ex Haliburton et all, a proprietary licensed technology. In other words, no matter who does what here, will they have to pay Haliburton a license right to use this ‘fracking’ technology.
Many thanks
That is my impression, but I am not sure. Don’t quote me. Not sure where to find that out, but it’s a great question.
If you google
hydraulic fracturing patents
http://www.google.com/search?client=gmail&rls=gm&q=hydraulic%20fracturing%20patents
You get a lot of hits
Best blog I have found so far.. Your two posters are perfect..
The big problem I think is that the “carrot” of monetary relief is so tempting for people who struggle to make ends meet! How can we help them see that they are destroying their own environment and way of life.
New york State has some of the last good water on earth and WATER is much more precious than natural gas… Natural gas is only a temporary solution,
why are we not generating safe , alternative energy soruces instead??
Why can’t the sam industry that makes a missle make a windmill??
Don’t ever think that the government and the corporations care if you or your family get sick. Don’t think that they care when you tell them “My child has cancer because of your careless profiteering”. They are thinking “How can we make this problem go away? I hope the kid dies so they are so lost in grief they can not make any more noise”. The only language they speak is MONEY. This is also the only way to make them f*** off for good. Sabotage them, organize against them, for you and your family and those you care about.
what a joke.like you have rights as land owners in the USA.lol
Not sure what you mean. In the US we have more rights as landowners than in most places, but there are some we get screwed on, like mandatory inclusion when some neighbors sign leases, or eminent domain.
Other things there should be no rights for, like the right to pollute and ruin entire neighborhoods just for the promise (usually a lie, anyway) of an un-earned buck. It’s like when you swim in a community pool, you can’t have the right just to piss in your corner – it effects everyone, no matter how much some people deny it.
I think everyone should watch Fracknation, don’t believe the media, or anyone in Hollywood, for that matter. Knowing the truth gives us power, something the government DOESN’T want us to have. Once you know the truth about something from a trusted source, you can then stop all the garbage from the media, when you don’t pay attention to the lies, then the truth speaks out. Want more of the truth, go to Glenn Beck, The Blaze, if you don’t want the truth then just ignore this message, or make some stupid comment, the 2nd is sure to happen.
Um, Fracknation is part of the media. Glenn Beck? – Media. Fox News? – one of the biggest parts of the media.
Brian, I would like to inquire as to what your credentials are to be giving all this information to people that just want the truth about fracking. Yes with the pressures that are used there are dangers of blowouts and spills. Yes there are dangerous chemicals in the fracking fluid when it comes back out of a well, not when it goes in the well. Lubricants and a mild caustic acid are the main ingredients in fracking fluid when it is put in the ground and it mixes with NATURAL chemical in the ground to become hazardous. What you fail to explain is the extent that the gas companies go to to prevent and contain spills. Containment’s are under every piece of equipment that is used. Any spill as much as a quart that is spilled outside an containment and gets on the ground is cleaned up immediately. (this includes diesel fuel, anti-freeze, oil and even fresh water). Contrary to what you try to scare people into believing, GAS COMPANIES do not want attention, do not want to harm the environment, do not want to harm people. What kind of financial sense does it make to draw attention to yourself if you want to be profitable. I’ve worked in the chemical industry for 23 years as a boilermaker and 3 years as a safety system installer for 3 major gas companies and I can tell you one thing. There is 10 times the pollution and 100 times the danger in a standard chemical plant as there is in drilling and fracking. The problem is that nutjobs like you can’t attack the chemical industry becuase you that where you get so many products that you can’t live without and it’s not the sexy statement like protesting gas companies. Money makes people independent and free thinking, and those are the people that scare progressives like yourself that want to influence as many people as you can to think like you. If you want to live in a shack and survive off the land that’s your choice, but how about leaving other people make their own choices.
Normally I wouldn’t reply to someone who calls me and others who think like me, “you nut jobs,” but it goes a long way to show that when you don’t have an argument, you have to resort to calling names. Whatever.
Credentials? Really? Do I have to work for the industry to be able to have an opinion? I basically base my argument on “is this true on not” and don’t really care about credentials. Plenty of shills for natural gas have credentials. “Credentials” is a false argument, Kevin. Show me where I was wrong in a specific case. (Actually, don’t. Only one comment per insulter.)
No one says gas companies WANT to to harm anything. It’s just that profits often come before consideration of the environment. You know that has been true in many instances. (Well, I’m sure BP always put the environment first…LOL.)
Can’t attack the chemical industry? Have you even seen the backlash against Monsanto? Where have you been?
Of course money makes people independent and free-thinking. And smoking makes you healthy, and gas is good for the environment, and Paul McCartney is dead. Socrates, the Buddha, Jesus.. those guys were just loaded with scratch.
Money is independent of thought. There are some free-thinking rich people, there are some free-thinking poor people, and plenty in the middle. Too bad you are under the impression that you are one of them.
Leave other people to make their own choices? As in “mandatory inclusion?” Know what that is? It’s not that I mind when people pee where they want, but when they do it in a public pool and insist on their right to pee in their corner, that’s not liberty, that’s ignorant selfishness.
Now we each have gotten our turns. Please don’t bother me anymore.
These guys that have been sucking the fracking kool-aid on the gas company tit for a couple of decades sure give you an idea of just how whacked out all those chemicals can make your brain. Telling me that you’ve been working in the industry for a couple of decades does nothing to establish credibility with me; it simply makes me suspect that you’re a fool or totally unscrupulous……lie…..make as much money as you can…………move on and leave the rubes to cleanup the mess or die in it………..that the modus operandi of the fossil fuel extraction industry. No????? Show me one place on the planet that they’ve left in better condition than it was before they raped it.
Mandatory inclusion is the protocol for drillers because by law, they MUST pay you for your portion of gas, whether you signed a lease or not. It is impossible to exclude one patch of land when drilling a specific area, so they have to pay you for the gas they extract.
I have neighbors who received checks in the mail from a gas company, because they were on the fringe of the pool. They had never signed a lease, and had no idea they were sitting on gas.
It’s not that the gas people force you to drill your land; they just have to pay you for the percentage of the gas that belongs to you.
A drilling company cannot put a well on your land unless you give them permission. The only persuasion is the fact that they give you a lot more in royalties if you allow it, and they wind up putting a well on your property.
What a disingenuous argument. It implies that we are suggesting that mandatory inclusion forces us to “drill on our land.” It also implies that the poor drillers have to pay us for nothing.
What it actually does is force us to have our land undermined (in the truest sense of the word) by drillers. Those drillers are not required by law to drill under our land (thus putting us at risk without our permission.)
“A drilling company cannot put a well on your land unless you give them permission,” is a false argument. The fact that the drilling company can drill a well beneath your land without your permission is the issue.
As far them sending checks – someone could send me a check for putting my daughter into slavery, but that doesn’t mean it’s right, either. I don’t want their money, I want them not to undermine my property, but in this case, as a home- and landowner, I have no rights.
You misunderstand.
The drilling company cannot exclude a landowner from receiving royalty checks simply because that landowner did not sign a lease. They can’t get your gas for free. That is what they mean by mandatory inclusion. The gas company can’t get away with not paying you, whether you sign a lease or not.
The company can extract gas from under your property if your neighbors have signed a lease. There is a certain percentage of an area that they must have under contract in order to employ ‘mandatory inclusion.’ They absolutely cannot place the drills (those giant rigs that stay up for 8 weeks or so) on your property unless you give them permission.
And, I also notice that the media makes it seem like ‘poison water’ is a given if you have drilling around you. This is not the case. There have been accidents, but compared to the thousands of wells that have been drilled, it is miniscule.
The “environmentalists” use the water thing to scare regular people who are new to drilling, and the left-leaning southern part of the state seems to get most of the media coverage.
I am in a unique position, as I have lived around drilling for many years (at least 10) and I am comfortable with the amount of regulation (a lot!) the industry employs. So far, no problems. I also own property in the western Catskills, so a land guy may come knocking fairly soon. I’m probably one of the few people with this perspective.
Mel,
Clearly I am not the one who misunderstands. I understand perfectly well, and have adequately responded, yet you either cannot, or will not, see the real point.
We are all aware that they cannot come in and put drills on your land, but as I wrote, it is the undermining of property that is the issue. They can put your land at risk by drilling under it. If you want to take the risk, that’s one thing, but if they do it without your permission, it’s wrong.
I’ll try one more time: We KNOW they can’t put drills on your land without your permission. BUT THEY CAN drill beneath your property without your permission. THAT is the point.
As I stated before, the money is not the point. Please process this.
Look at it this way; If someone took your car without your permission, but left you money for it, it would still be stealing, wouldn’t it?
I also liked “And, I also notice that the media makes it seem like ‘poison water’ is a given if you have drilling around you. This is not the case. There have been accidents, but compared to the thousands of wells that have been drilled, it is miniscule.”
Most accidents are covered up by the gas companies, who settle, but with gag-orders on the victims. You don’t have any idea how many accidents there are, or how big they are, because they never reach the media. You do understand that, right?
I’d trust the gas industry a lot more if it didn’t send liars (landmen) out to dupe ignorant landowners, and if they didn’t make secret back-room deals with Dick Cheney to avoid public scrutiny, or if they didn’t lobby to exempt themselves from The Clean Air and Clean Water acts.
You say they have “a lot” of regulation? Then how is it they got themselves exempted from EPA regulation?
You seem to take a lot of things on faith, just because people are getting money for it. That focus seems a bit myopic to me. I understand that your priority is the money. Good for you. Not everyone shares your priority, but unfortunately, everyone who undergoes mandatory inclusion has to live by it. That is just wrong.
You are apparently not in the unique position you think you are in. Plenty of people like to use their own anecdotal evidence to avoid seeing that other people have exactly the opposite experience than they do, but just choose to ignore it.
Please don’t just keep submitting the same argument again and again, OK?
Brian,
Thanks for creating this site and allowing the discussion.
Mel,
10 years might not be long enough to know how things will turn out for your gas drilling experience. There is a long term problem with petroleum wells, be they for gas or oil.
Over time the wells leak.
Many wells — many leaks — and no way to fix them — long after a well may be profitable there can be and in too many cases will be dangerous and damaging.
Don’t take my word for it. Let the Society of Petroleum Engineers make the case.
Here’s a link to one presentation about leaks, partially quoted below, more can be found with little effort.
http://www.onepetro.org/mslib/servlet/onepetropreview?id=00064733
Publisher Society of Petroleum Engineers
Language English
Document ID 64733-MS DOI 10.2118/64733-MS
Content Type Conference Paper
Title Why Oilwells Leak: Cement Behavior and Long-Term Consequences
Authors Maurice B. Dusseault, Porous Media Research Institute, University of Waterloo; Malcolm N. Gray, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited; Pawel A. Nawrocki, CANMET
Source
International Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition in China, 7-10 November 2000, Beijing, China
ISBN 978-1-55563-907-5
Copyright Copyright 2000, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.
Preview
Abstract
Oil and gas wells can develop gas leaks along the casing years after production has ceased and the well has been plugged and abandoned (P&A). Explanatory mechanisms include channelling, poor cake removal, shrinkage, and high cement permeability. The reason is probably cement shrinkage that leads to circumferential fractures that are propagated upward by the slow accumulation of gas under pressure behind the casing. Assuming this hypothesis is robust, it must lead to better practice and better cement formulations
Introduction,
Environmental Issues
This discussion is necessarily superficial, given the complexity of the issue and attendant practical factors such as workability, density, set retardation, mud cake removal, entrainment of formation gas, shale sloughing, pumping rate, mix consistency, and so on. A conceptual model will be developed in this article to explain slow gas migration behind casing, but we deliberately leave aside for now the complex operational issues associated with cement placement and behavior.
In 1997, there were ∼35,000 inactive wells in Alberta alone, tens of thousands of abandoned and orphan wells1, plus tens of thousands of active wells. Wells are cased for environmental security and zonal isolation. In the Canadian heavy oil belt, it is common to use a single production casing string to surface (Figure 1); for deeper wells, additional casing strings may be necessary, and surface casing to isolate shallow unconsolidated sediments is required. As we will see, surface casings have little effect on gas migration, though they undoubtedly give more security against blowouts and protect shallow sediments from mud filtrate and pressurization.
To form hydraulic seals for conservation and to isolate deep strata from the surface to protect the atmosphere and shallow groundwater sources, casings are cemented using water-cement slurries. These are pumped down the casing, displacing drilling fluids from the casing-rock annulus, leaving a sheath of cement to set and harden (Figure 1). Casing and rock are prepared by careful conditioning using centralizers, mudcake scrapers, and so on. During placement, casing is rotated and moved to increase the sealing effectiveness of the cement grout. Recent techniques to enhance casing-rock-cement sealing may include vibrating the casing, partial cementation and annular filling using a small diameter tube.
Additives may be incorporated to alter properties, but Portland Class G (API rating) oil well cement forms the base of almost all oil well cements.2 Generally, slurries are placed at densities about 2.0 Mg/m3, but at such low densities will shrink and will be influenced by the elevated pressures (10-70 MPa) and temperatures (35 to >140°C) encountered at depth.
The consequences of cement shrinkage are non-trivial: in North America, there are literally tens of thousands of abandoned, inactive, or active oil and gas wells, including gas storage wells, that currently leak gas to surface. Much of this enters the atmosphere directly, contributing slightly to greenhouse effects. Some of the gas enters shallow aquifers, where traces of sulfurous compounds can render the water non-potable, or where the methane itself can generate unpleasant effects such as gas locking of household wells, or gas entering household systems to come out when taps are turned on.
more info on the link