Gary Heinlein, Detroit News
A new environmental fight looms over a huge natural gas harvesting project opponents claim will industrialize northern Lower Peninsula forests and drain billions of gallons of water from aquifers that feed treasured trout streams.
A Canadian firm proposes to use hydraulic fracturing to draw natural gas from as many as 500 wells extending nearly two miles underground and the same distance horizontally.
“It’s intense industrial resource use, intense water use unprecedented in Michigan,” said Traverse City environmental lawyer Jim Olson, who represents an outdoors organization that wants to protect the unspoiled Jordan River Valley in Antrim County near the affected area. “We need to get a handle on this way ahead of time.”
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been used in Michigan for 60 years on 12,000 wells with very few problems and little public attention, but not in shale formations this deep.
Environmental activists, partially driven by highly publicized fracking battles in other places, are starting to butt heads with state agencies that oversee oil and gas drilling and with Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration.
Calgary, Alberta-based Encana Corp.’s project dovetails with Snyder’s energy plan.
“I am committed to ensuring that Michigan can take advantage of the reliability, affordability and environmental and economic benefits of natural gas resources,” Snyder said in a special address to lawmakers last November.
Calling Michigan “a very strong natural gas state,” Snyder also called for a state reserve to set aside some of what’s harvested and hold down the price.
The governor defended the use of hydraulic fracturing and announced a University of Michigan study that will guide state policies for tapping the abundant natural gas deposits discovered over the past decade or so in Michigan.
Encana is tapping Michigan’s mammoth Antrim and Collingwood shale formations, which zig-zag from the tip of the mitt all the way down the middle of the state to Gratiot County. The company’s mineral rights are mostly in Cheboygan, Emmet, Kalkaska and Missaukee counties but also spread into other counties.
Fracking sparks concern
Controversies have swirled around the fracking technique, which opens vast new sources of oil and gas to world markets but has been blamed for environmental problems, from earthquakes and tremors in England to methane gas in drinking water in Pennsylvania.
Two recent movies, “Gasland” and Gasland II,” stoked new concerns and made claims disputed by the industry and some studies.
Encana’s project, for which it has leased mineral rights to 432,000 acres of public and private land, has the potential to make fracking more of an issue than it has been in the past in Michigan.
Fly fishermen are starting to wonder if their favorite waters will be harmed; Charlevoix-headquartered environmental activists want voters to ban the technique; and House Democrats are calling for tighter state restrictions. Also, fracking opponents have held demonstrations at DNR mineral rights bidding sessions in the past year and a half.
“My big concern is where’s the water going to come from?” said Josh Greenberg, owner of Gates Au Sable Lodge, next to Michigan’s most-popular trout stream in the Grayling area. “It’s coming from here. Who’s going to benefit? Someone who’s not here.”
Encana says fracking uses 58,800 to 31.5 million gallons of water per well. The amount varies from one well to another.
Olson last September urged the state’s Natural Resources Commission to slow down mineral rights leasing on public lands and declare absolutely off-limits state game reserves, recreational and natural areas he characterizes as Michigan’s “crown jewels.”
Safety ensured
Officials at the two key regulatory agencies expressed confidence hydraulic fracturing can continue to be done safely.
“The biggest concern is the volume of fluids (water) being used,” said Harold Fitch, state geologist and head of the Office of Oil, Gas and Minerals at the Department of Environmental Quality. “If you manage water consumption and the waste water that’s produced, you’ve got control.”
The Department of Natural Resources, which oversees mineral rights, is careful about where drilling is permitted, added spokesman Ed Golder. Special areas such as critical dunes, Great Lakes bottom lands and the Jordan River Valley are off-limits.
“We do a thorough analysis of the land we lease and what type of use should be allowed,” Golder said.
Fracking uses high volumes of water, sand and a chemical mix, pumped under very high pressure, to create fissures in shale formations, releasing the natural gas they hold.
Two-thirds or more of the mixture stays in the deep formation, Encana says. The rest shoots back up the pipe to be drawn off into special tanks and trucked to one of 740 deep-formation chemical waste storage wells.
The hydraulic fracturing takes from a few days to a few weeks. Once that’s completed, a well can continue to produce natural gas for as long as 40 years, according to company literature.
Encana has drilled a dozen wells since 2009. One goes down 10,500 feet and about two miles horizontally, said spokesman Doug Hock.
“We’re in the early stages,” Hock said of new drilling in northern Michigan. “Til we do the exploration, we won’t know whether we have something that can scale up and be economic.”
Hock said the investment could be huge: $10 million per well.
Dems seek safeguards
House Democrats argue for more safeguards and have rolled out bills with stringent requirements for disclosure of fracking chemicals and water use. Municipalities and individuals would be entitled to court hearings before permits are issued.
“If I lived in northern Michigan and they were putting (fracking chemicals) in the ground near my house, I’d want to know,” said Rep. Andy Schor, D-Lansing, one of the bill sponsors.
Fitch, the state geologist, said the DEQ has looked into a recent case in which the process temporarily affected a homeowner’s well. Beyond that, he said, fracking has been almost trouble-free here: two limited wastewater spills.
That’s not enough assurance for those who worry about toxic chemicals left in the ground, no matter how deep, and waterways that might be hurt by massive groundwater withdrawals.
Charlevoix-based Ban Michigan Fracking wants to collect at least 258,088 registered voter signatures by Oct. 1 for a 2014 ballot proposal to prohibit fracking. A similiar effort to get a ban on the 2012 ballot failed when opponents didn’t collect enough petition signatures.
At Gates Au Sable Lodge, Greenberg views Encana’s project with deep concern. For his lodge, shop and restaurant to thrive, the Au Sable River always must flow clear and cold.
“I’m scared and a little concerned about what it’s going to look like if it all comes to pass,” Greenberg said.
“I don’t think you could ever convince me you can take that much water from what’s under the earth and not affect what’s on top of it.”