When southern Kenai Peninsula residents heard BlueCrest’s plans for the Cosmopolitan project just north of Anchor Point, it brought two new words into our vocabulary: hydraulic fracturing, fracking.
We had heard those words in relation to earthquakes, drinking water being poisoned and disappearing and battles to completely ban the practice, but that was outside Alaska. However, according to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, 20 percent of Alaska’s oil and natural gas wells have been hydraulically fracked.
Fracking is a method of extracting oil and gas from shale and rock formations. After being drilled vertically, a well is turned horizontally and perforations made in the horizontal section using a mixture of water, sand and chemicals under high pressure measuring as much at 9,000 pounds a square inch. That’s roughly the same pressure as simultaneously popping 1,000 inflated footballs.
The fracking fluid can be as much as 98 percent water. The chemical additives — detergents, salts, acids, alcohols, lubricants, disinfectants — comprise the remainder and prevent micro-organism growth, are oxygen scavengers to prevent corrosion of metal pipes and are acids to reduce drilling mud damage. Each fracture requires millions of gallons of water. For every one million gallons of fluid, that’s 20,000 gallons of additive fluid.
AOGCC said Alaska’s fracking procedures are more strict than elsewhere so there is nothing to worry about. However, in an effort to learn more, I spoke with a seismologist who said Cook Inlet is riddled with so many faults it is hard to know if earthquakes are fracking-related. Industry is moving too fast for science to keep pace, he said. Scientific American reported leaks in toxic drilling fluids disposal wells. A 2016 report from the Environmental Protection Agency noted “significant gaps and uncertainties of the available data” exist that prevent calculations or estimations of impacts fracking has on drinking water nationally. A Princeton University study indicates fracking may have significant health impacts. And fracking research continues to grow.
With so much unknown about the impacts, Alaskans asked AOGCC for a public notification and comment period in the fracking permit process. With their knowledge of Cook Inlet and the waters flowing into it, Cook Inletkeeper led the effort, testifying at meetings and bringing the matter to the public’s attention. More than 450 Alaskans spoke at meetings, testified by phone and wrote letters.
Public notice and the right to comment isn’t much to ask considering oil and natural gas wells on the southern Kenai Peninsula are being fracked very near our homes. BlueCrest’s wells, which extend beneath Cook Inlet, are little more than 1,000 feet from neighbors’ water wells.
And it isn’t much to ask when you realize that without notification, we have no idea where fracking is planned. I asked Hilcorp’s landman if fracking had occurred in any wells within the Ninilchik Unit — my cabin is just outside the unit’s southern boundary — and was told no, but Hilcorp had fracked wells in Nikolaevsk. That offered little peace of mind since Hilcorp just bought 42 acres near my cabin. It also was news to Nikolaevsk residents with whom I spoke.
In response to the public’s comments and requests, as well as those from industry representatives and the state who maintained no public notification was needed, AOGCC revised its regulations: fracking applications will be posted on AOGCC’s website. How far in advance of the permit being granted: not noted. Comment period: not included. It is left to property owners to find out for themselves if and what development might be planned.
AOGCC Special Assistant Jody Colombie told me earlier this month the fracking regulation change has been sent to the Attorney General for review and then will be forwarded to the lieutenant governor for signature, a 6-8 week process. When I asked if comments could be submitted to the lieutenant governor, Colombie said, “You could if you want to, but we’ve adopted it.”
There is too little science and too much at risk to stay quiet. Please join me in asking Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott to not sign this procedural change until it ensures adequate public notice and requires public comments to be considered before permits to frack are awarded: Byron Mallott, Lt. Governor, byron.mallott@alaska.gov.
• McKibben Jackinsky is a Kenai Peninsula resident, a former reporter for the Homer News (now retired) and the author of “Too Close to Home? Living with ‘drill, baby’ on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula,” published in 2016 by Hardscratch Press.
