St.Tammany Fracking

[Nomad.2nd]

Then this sir is a reasonable place to start the debate and negotiations if it comes to it. The people who deal with it, and at risk should get the perks. Free water for the public/commercial is a nice start.

And that will last about 3 days after the last of the oil is tapped....

 

[Vermiform]

Then this sir is a reasonable place to start the debate and negotiations if it comes to it. The people who deal with it, and at risk should get the perks. Free water for the public/commercial is a nice start.

I didn't think there were even that many places down there with indoor plumbing.

 

[gunut]

Then this sir is a reasonable place to start the debate and negotiations if it comes to it. The people who deal with it, and at risk should get the perks. Free water for the public/commercial is a nice start.

What about the flip side to this? Citizens that don't want the oil companies drilling or fracking in their parish have to pay double the price for oil and gas. What say ye?

 

[Devilneck]

Then this sir is a reasonable place to start the debate and negotiations if it comes to it. The people who deal with it, and at risk should get the perks. Free water for the public/commercial is a nice start.

It's not so much about debate or what have you. Just a few residents on one hand, some people who don't really care, and a few armchairs with no stake in the game that like to score quippy points. For my part, I'm not willing to take the risk. Too much rides on that aquifer. If it's so safe, and they can drill sideways and all, let them drill around the aquifer from Lake Pontchartrain. Worst case scenario there, the lake gets polluted again. Not like it's all that clean anyways.

As far as costing more for the residents who don't want it, we don't have the drilling there now, so why should natural gas cost more? That's just plain stupid.

If it's a done deal and it's going to happen, it's better to take a realistic approach and require the oil company to have remediation measures in place Just in case the turd does hit the fan. If it doesn't. well I guess people had nothing to worry about. If it does, some armchairs won't be giving any more of a damn about it than they are now, but the residents are going to have a mess to deal with.

I'm sure as Hades not very much inclined to back any pro-Enviro whacko agenda. I'm just looking at risk vs benefit here. It doesn't add up. Are we going to have some sort of big savings on propane from this? Not likely. As mentioned with the nuke plant, we don't see a doggone lick of savings from that. I'm a bit more comfortable with a nuke plant down on the river than I am with it being up here though. Sure, there's a few jobs from it. Abita Beer, Covington, and a few others along with Kentwood Water also supply a few jobs. I know I get some benefit from Abita Beer. Lots, truth be known. I really love the stuff.

I suppose it doesn't matter. Hey, BP took care of everything after their little mishap in the Gulf. Yep, all's good now.

 

[CBlack]

It's not so much about debate or what have you. Just a few residents on one hand, some people who don't really care, and a few armchairs with no stake in the game that like to score quippy points. For my part, I'm not willing to take the risk. Too much rides on that aquifer. If it's so safe, and they can drill sideways and all, let them drill around the aquifer from Lake Pontchartrain. Worst case scenario there, the lake gets polluted again. Not like it's all that clean anyways.

As far as costing more for the residents who don't want it, we don't have the drilling there now, so why should natural gas cost more? That's just plain stupid.

If it's a done deal and it's going to happen, it's better to take a realistic approach and require the oil company to have remediation measures in place Just in case the turd does hit the fan. If it doesn't. well I guess people had nothing to worry about. If it does, some armchairs won't be giving any more of a damn about it than they are now, but the residents are going to have a mess to deal with.

I'm sure as Hades not very much inclined to back any pro-Enviro whacko agenda. I'm just looking at risk vs benefit here. It doesn't add up. Are we going to have some sort of big savings on propane from this? Not likely. As mentioned with the nuke plant, we don't see a doggone lick of savings from that. I'm a bit more comfortable with a nuke plant down on the river than I am with it being up here though. Sure, there's a few jobs from it. Abita Beer, Covington, and a few others along with Kentwood Water also supply a few jobs. I know I get some benefit from Abita Beer. Lots, truth be known. I really love the stuff.

I suppose it doesn't matter. Hey, BP took care of everything after their little mishap in the Gulf. Yep, all's good now.

The shale in this area is more oil than gas. Most estimates I've seen are around 7 billion barrels.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[dixiejarhead]

For goodness sake. We've been fracing wells for over 100 years. This is not new technology. Likely there will be two sets of casing over the shallower aquifers from which we get our water. These casings are cemented to the formations from top to bottom of the wellbore. The zone to be "fractured" is at the bottom of the wellbore. The fractures we create with hydraulic pressure don't propagate above the intended zone at the bottom of the well. As long as the cement between the casing and the formations is intact, the fracs are contained and the shallower aquifers protected.

Now, do things sometimes go wrong? Yes, as with any industrial process things can go south. But when done properly there is no risk. The thing to do is ensure that the operators are held to the highest standards of operation. In other words, have a good plan and execute it.

This is just the short of it. It's incredibly detailed and I'm not going to get into the details. Am I involved in this particular operation? No. I didn't even know we had shallow reserves up here until 6 months ago. Should we watch this with eagle eyes. You bet we should. But to hide under the bed over fracing because of a bunch of environmental nut jobs screaming the sky is falling is wrong. I don't want to see this develop into another case of NIMBY (not in my back yard.)

Right on! Great explanation!

 

[freedive10]

I like my back yard just the way it is. Thank you! I also don't need the traffic and heavy machinery running up and down 1088 which is not suited for this.

 

[Hitman]

UPDATE

A public hearing in Baton Rouge with the Louisiana Office of Conservation,
which was originally set for this week, has been postponed until June.

MANDEVILLE, La. (WGNO) - A day after hundreds of concerned residents and political leaders rallied against a proposed oil drilling operation in St. Tammany, Helis Oil & Gas has offered an alternative proposal, which includes a phased approach to the project.

The Helis proposal, agreed to by the Parish, calls for the company to proceed with drilling a conventional vertical well in the near term, instead of proceeding with plans to drill both vertically and horizontally for fracturing during the summer.

Helis will drill a 13,000 feet well off Log Cabin Road, between I-12 and Highway 1088, to obtain data and samples. Those findings will then be reviewed over the next 3-4 months.

If the findings indicate that commercially viable quantities of oil are present, Helis will then revert back to their original plan, to conduct horizontal drilling and utilize the hydraulic fracturing method to extract oil from the project. Read More

 

[SpeedRacer]

Oh so they're just gonna put the tip in.

 

[doc ace]

Yeah man!

 

[Hitman]

Oh so they're just gonna put the tip in.

Well...as my father-n-law would say.

They're not going to walk up and put it in
they're going to put it in and walk up on you.

 

[Tigerfish]

From what I know about drilling, there are multiple sets of steel casing placed in the well several thousand feet deep and cemented in place. Usually fracking takes place below 10,000 feet, ground water is probably less than 600 feet. The chances of something penetrating 2 or 3 sets of steel casing and contrete and get into ground water low.

You are 99.99% correct. Groundwater exists from 200 ft down to depths of 2200 ft in the aquifers on the north shore and into the Baton Rouge area. Other than that, you are absolutely correct on everything else.

 

[oldsman350]

I keep hearing people say about traffic on Hwy 1088 and going thru neighborhoods.. Wouldn't the trucks get off at 1088 go over the bridge and to the woods close to the school? I'm on the fence but I don't see how this would be any different than a situation if one of the numerous pipelines that cross St.Tammany in between Hwy.59 and Lacombe leaking and spilling thousands of gallons of Petro chemicals. Where was the out rage for these pipelines?

 

[Devilneck]

I keep hearing people say about traffic on Hwy 1088 and going thru neighborhoods.. Wouldn't the trucks get off at 1088 go over the bridge and to the woods close to the school? I'm on the fence but I don't see how this would be any different than a situation if one of the numerous pipelines that cross St.Tammany in between Hwy.59 and Lacombe leaking and spilling thousands of gallons of Petro chemicals. Where was the out rage for these pipelines?

To the best of my knowledge, those aren't running through the aquifer. Maybe they are, and if that's the case I don't mind admitting my ignorance.

 

[oldsman350]

I don't think there running through the aquifer either but you if have thousands of gallons of petroleum products spewing out. I'd have to imagine it has nowhere to go but down or into the rivers.

 

[22doberman22]

YES bad things can happen when fracking. I worked for an oil field service company and I have been on many fracking jobs in the gulf. The worse I heard was when I was working in North Texas. The guys I was working with told me a story of a fracking job that went south. They were pumping their fluids down hole and it blew out of another company's well head miles down the road. Not Good! Plus you don't want to know the many types of chemicals that are pumped during a fracking job that are going down hole. Some of it are byproducts from chemical plants.

 

[doc ace]

Jesus Christ

 

[Sugarbug]

I'd be less worried about the small chance of a drilling accident and more worried about the perceived risk by the national population. If I'm joe-blow who knows nothing about fracking other than the random bits I've "learned" on people's facebook posts, then I'm probably not going to choose to move into an area where there is fracking. And if joe-blow feels that way, there are a lot more of him running around than level-headed Thomas that would be willing to move to an area with fracking.

The only impact I see it really having is dropping property values on the north shore.

 

[freedive10]

UPDATE: Helis Oil has compromised with the Parish and has decided to only drill vertically in their initial phase. After studies and tests are performed, they will decide whether to proceed further.

 

[Gator 45/70]

I see that no one has factored in the oilfield ruffians that will be moving in. Just thought that should be factored into the mix.