Hydraulic Fracturing & the Watersheds of Weld County, CO.

1. Hydraulic Fracturing & the Watersheds of Weld County, CO. Vladimir B. Zivkovic, Ph.D. Zivkovic Geophysical Investigations Greeley, CO

2. Introduction • What is a watershed? • Watersheds of Weld County • What is Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking)? • Water Usage • Local Geology • Water Quality Issues

3. What is a Watershed • A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place. • Watersheds come in all shapes and sizes. They cross county, state, and national boundaries. • In the continental US, there are 2,110 watersheds; including Hawaii Alaska, and Puerto Rico, there are 2,267 watersheds.

5. Watersheds of Weld County • Middle South Platte-Cherry Creek; state(s): CO • St. Vrain; state(s): CO • Big Thompson; state(s): CO • Cache La Poudre; state(s): CO, WY • Lone Tree-Owl; state(s): CO, WY • Crow; state(s): CO, WY • Kiowa; state(s): CO • Middle South Platte-Sterling; state(s): CO, NE • Pawnee; state(s): CO • Upper Lodgepole; state(s): CO, NE, WY • Sidney Draw; state(s): CO, NE, WY

8. Crow Watershed

10. What is Hydraulic Fracturing? • Fracking, fracing, or hydrofracking is the process of pumping a mixture of water, sand or similar material, and chemical additives, under high pressure, to create small interconnecting fractures to increase permeability. • Performed hydraulic fracturing after a well is drilled, cased and cemented, to increase the well’s productivity. • Sand is used to prop open the fractures, and chemical additives reduce friction, control bacteria, decrease corrosion, and serve other purposes.

11. Components of Fracking Fluid

13. How much water is used to frack a well? • The amount of water needed to frack a well in Colorado depends on the geologic basin, the formation, and the well. • For example, 50k to 300k gallons may be used to frack a shallow coalbed methane well in the Raton Basin, while 800k to 2 million gallons may be used to frack a deeper tight sand gas well in the Piceance Basin. • In the DJ Basin, 250k gallons may be used to frack a vertical well, and up to 5 million gallons may be used to frack a horizontal well.

14. How much is one million gallons of water? • One million gallons is the amount of water consumed by: • A 1,000 megawatt coal-fired power plant in 2.5 hours • A golf course in 5 days • 1.5 acres of corn in a season • There are approximately 18,000 active wells in Weld County. • Total of 4.5 Billion to 90 Billion gallons of water used in the process.

15. Oil and Gas Fields of the US

17. Denver Area Geologic Cross-section

18. Denver Area Geologic Cross-section with Aquifers

19. Greeley Area Depths Average Depth to Fox Hills Aquifer base-100 ft Average thickness of Pierre Shale-5,900 ft. Average depth to the Niobrara Formation-6,700-6,900 ft.

20. Base Line Testing • Weld County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer's speech to the Longmont Republican Woman's Club-asserted that 99.5 percent of fracking fluid is nontoxic. • The remaining 0.5 percent is no more poisonous than the rat poison, oven cleaner and bleach under our kitchen sinks. 

22. Pros & Cons of Fracking • Energy Independence • Lower energy prices • Smaller well field foot print • Safer than decades past • 2x-3x less atmospheric CO2 emissions than coal (NG) • Job growth • Non-renewable energy source • Public opinion • Eye sores • Contamination • Chemical non disclosure • Water usage • Land rights issues

23. Questions?