I posted this in repsonse to the question about drilling on a deer lease but would like to get more feedback on this subject:

"Has anyone noticed problems because of the deer drinking from frac water pond? We have a pond on our lease that has a fence around it but have seen the deer jump it to get to the water. Frac water is contaminated with heavy metals and chemicals but the impact on the deer may not be know for awhile. Was wondering if anyone had any extended experience with a frac pond on their lease."

How is it contaminated? We hunt 12 sections with hundreds of oil/gas wells on it. Probably 10-15 frac water pits. All fenced off but yes deer still jump them. They fill them with creek water on our ranch when they start getting low. Not sure what contamination you are referring too.

I live in oil country and have noticed that since the TCEQ closed down a bunch of the pits, not necessarily frac pits, but pits that were associated with the oil business, the number of deer have declined and the size of racks have also shrunk. Better be careful what you weed out. Most wildlife will use what benefits them and eliminate what is detrimental to them. Not saying you are not right, just saying that just because it is there does not mean it is detrimental.

Can you get an 8ft fence installed? That's what I'd be inclined to request.

Frac pits are freshwater!Period.Wait a month and walk around one and see the number of perch and polywogs near the edge..

There after the salt an minerals, Which settle to bottom fast, North texas natural runs 3-500 ppm thats what is after settlement occurs. In mud it may still be 20-60,000ppm

JB,
Frac water is water that has had any number of chemicals and biocides added to it before being pumped under pressure into a well to fracture the underlying strata. The chemcials faciltiate the frcturing process while the biocides are added to kill and prevent algae and other organisms from growing in the well. When the frac water is recovered, it is contaminated with the checmicals and biocides. There are numerous companies that are employed by the oil and gas inducstry to decontaminate frac water so the water component can be recycled. So, if the frac water has to be decontaminated for recycling purposes, how safe is it for the wildlife to drink?

Most lakes are more polluted than the frac tanks around here.

Yet wrong again..All chemicals are added after the water is pulled from the pit..Biocide is not added to kill chemicals.Algea and these other organisms can't grow without sunlight and oxygen..Where are you getting your imformation?Do you not realize that these wells are drilled in the barnett shale.At a depth of 6000 plus feet which is ocean water..Chemicals do not facilitate the fracturing process, most are used to reduce friction..I have no stake into what I'm telling you, but your very misimformed..

are these ponds lined with plastic, or are they just a natural bottom?

if these are the plastic lined frac ponds that have flowback fluid and being used for the purpose of temporary storage prior to either injecting in a disposal well or going through some recycling process, the water can be contaminated with everything you mention and more.

If the fence is not adequate to keep the deer out, then they need to construct a high fence around it.

if this is just fresh water used for fracs in the future, there's nothing to worry about.

Theyre lined with olastic

They may use ponds where you are, we always used metal frac tanks brought in for that purpose. Fresh water is used for this purpose. Even if they are using ponds as the frac water, the chemicals that are put into the water is designed to reduce friction and suspend the sand that is pumped in to hole. These chemicals are designed to return the FRAC GEL back into liquid state in a set amount of time. There is no return fluid when fracing a well. The purpose of the frac is to FRACTURE the formation and pack it with porous sand. This allows the oil to seep out of the formation easier. Frac water is water that is about to be pumped down a well. They do not STORE frac water long term.

if they are, then this is process fluids...

personally, I wouldn't want my deer drinking out of it either...the water has dissolved solids, not just "salt"...since 90% of the frac water around is from shale plays, there are some components that are not good to get in your system.

not to mention the BTEX strings that are dissolved in the water as well.

talk to the landowner and express your concern. If the landowner has the mineral rights, they probably won't give a damn. If they only have surface rights, they will probably raise holy hell.

most states don't allow you to have open pits of "produced water". It goes into to those big storage tanks you see on the well pads, then the water haulers pump the tanks and take them to disposal wells or where ever their destination is.

This discussion was very informative. My thanks to all the participants.

This discussion was very informative. My thanks to all the participants.

The pits are full of FRESH WATER!! They dispose of "frac" water under ground at disposal wells

the water isn't produced during the frac, it's produced at the initial production of the well, and referred to as "flowback water".

most water is disposed of through injection wells, (saltwater disposal wells), however in this age of "green", operators are being incentivised to recycle the used frac water.


all of that water has to go somewhere that is pumped during a frac, and the vast majority of it comes back up during the first couple weeks of production.
and as far as I knew, used frac water had to be stored in tanks, and not kept in open pits, but I have heard rumors that the state was allowing this process due to the lack of equipment, and giving temporary status to allow the storage in lined tanks until the water can be transported to a disposal well, or recycling facility. This could be total BS, just something I heard. Possibly similar to the process of landfarming contaminated soils....

You heard right. Have only seen it in the north part of the Barnett, but have seen it in a few places.

New Jeep,

here is some information on companies that generate their revenue on removing solids, and preventing soil contamination from open pit frac water....

it's not "frac" water, but it's the flowback water that resulted from the frac job.

if they were just storing fresh water, they aren't going to spend thousands of dollars to line the pits in plastic.

http://ppc-site.com/fracwatertreatment/fracpitart.html

http://www.justliners.com/pit.htm

http://www.rhinomembranes.com/pdf/Frac%20Pit%20Lining%20System.pdf

Some of ya'll are a little Loopy. I work for Weatherford Int. and yes a Frac Pond is fresh water. Then it is pumped downhole while fracing the well. Then a flowback crew comes in and monitor's the well and the flowback water goes into frac tank's and battery tank's and the sand goes thru sand seperator's and into open top's and is disposed of. The flowback crew calls in tank truck's as needed to haul it to a disposal or water transfer is done and it run's down a flow line to a disposal. Now a reserve pit on the other hand is a whole other story. They are full of all kind's of chemical's and stuff. Frac pond's are FRESH WATER!!!!!!! and yes most of the time they get the water from a nearby source creek's etc.

Most of the wells I have worked on have been natural gas in East Texas. We almost always build frac ponds and use a freshwater well drilled near by to fill it. The land owner gains a water well and a well built pond for future use. We do not collapse the water well after drilling and frac-ing. The only time we line the frac pond is when the landowners won't agree to a large enough pond and we need to hold every barrel of water we can.

The ponds that are dug next to a location are usually full of drilling waste and it has nothing to do with frac return except for when there is a problem, but the game is smart enough, just like you, to not drink contaminated water. If it smells bad, taste bad or has a bad texture even if they put their mouth in it they won't repeatadly return.

If I were a landowner and someone wanted to build a frac pond on my land I would say "get after it".

one ranch we have for sale, an elk stepped on a exposed pvc line and busted it, forcing us to turn all the water off on the ranch till we fixed it.

for about a week the there was no water in the troughs. went over to the frac tank and there wasn't a single deer or elk track around the tank.

I don't think the animals would drink outta one, unless they were in dire, dire straits

Yup as I wrote earlier. Frac water pits are fresh water pumped to locations through irrigation pipe. Used frac water is hauled off and the sand is seperated. Now pits for drilling are totally different. That is the big pit just off the rig pad that used drilling chemicals run to when they are of no more use. They let these dry up and then they push them over. Our landowner makes them plant these in wheat when they are finished. Same as gas pipelines. Any deer that drinks from the drilling pit deserves to have body chemical imbalances. Lol

We have seen deer drink from fresh water frac pits, but most do not like walking on the plastic that the pit is lined with. We have found some great tools left over from oilfield workers in the field. So we do keep our eyes open.

Why don't you just go and get a sample and have it tested???