The shale gas company, Cuadrilla, has published environmental monitoring data from its Preston New Road site near Blackpool.
A website, described as an e-portal, gives details of measurements of the quality of air and ground and surface water from monitoring stations around the site. There is also information about the times that heavy goods vehicles enter and leave the site.
Campaign groups opposed to operations at Preston New Road described the portal as a PR exercise and said they had no reason to trust Cuadrilla.
The portal is currently showing data January 2017 (when site work began at Preston New Road), as well as February and March 2017. Cuadrilla said the information would be updated monthly. See the final section of this post for some of the findings.
The company said data on noise would be added when drilling began, expected by June 2017, and seismic monitoring when fracking started.
“Local concerns shaped site”
Cuadrilla said the design took into account the views of local people consulted during the planning process for the site.
Francis Egan, CEO of Cuadrilla, said:
“After listening to local people’s views we are pleased to provide an easy to use online ePortal. This will allow the public access to the environmental monitoring data that we are gathering to assure the local community that our operations at Preston New Road are being conducted in an environmentally responsible manner. We are the first onshore oil and gas operator in the UK to launch an initiative such as this.”
The pro-fracking group, Backing Fracking, tweeted:
“What an excellent idea: @CuadrillaUK is making environmental monitoring data available online via an ePortal.”
“No reason to trust Cuadrilla”
Frack Free Lancashire responded to the website:
“We are delighted that Cuadrilla are acknowledging the requirement for measuring the impacts of their activities on the local community. However, we are concerned that we seem to be seeing yet another example of the regulatory bodies allowing Cuadrilla to mark their own homework.
“This appears to be yet another PR exercise to try to convince the public that they are trustworthy. It is now five months since Cuadrilla announced that they would be updating a “community tracker” every three months, yet the last update was on November 30th.
“Based on their performance so far, we have no reason to trust Cuadrilla’s half-hearted attempts to portray themselves as a concerned and responsible operator”
Roseacre Awareness Group said:
“Residents will take a lot of convincing as Cuadrilla have a poor track record to date, with multiple planning breaches at their other sites and a failure to deliver on their promises. Confidence and trust in them is very low.
“This is only a small exploratory site, with relatively low volumes and extended processes and timescales. What will happen in a full-scale production scenario with hundreds of super pads, with thousands of wells, all across the country being drilled by many different, and possibly less responsible, operators? This is a densely populated country and any environmental impacts could have a devastating impact.
“Accidents will happen. No amount of monitoring can prevent earthquakes, blow outs, spillages, etc.
“The bottom line is onshore unconventional fossil fuel extraction is not compatible with our Paris climate change agreement no matter how Cuadrilla ‘dress it up’. Scientists say fossil fuels should be left in ground and we should be investing in clean renewable energy.”
Findings
Traffic
According to the data on the portal, the highest number of heavy goods vehicles visiting the site so far has been in February, followed by January and March.
The data suggests that as work has progressed at Preston New Road Road, HGVs have been arriving and leaving earlier. HGV movements also appear to have become more spread out throughout the day.
The traffic management plan requires Cuadrilla to register and record all HGV arrivals and departures in half-hour periods. The data, however, is provided in hour slots. It is, therefore, not possible to see from the e-portal if any vehicles arrived before 7.30am or after 6.30pm. These are the time limits set in condition 19 of the planning permission.
Particulates
According to the portal, particulates at one of the monitoring stations exceeded the baseline figure in March for two types of particulates PM2.5 and PM10. The baseline is described as the peak reading for the same monitoring locations from May 2014-May 2015.
Based on Cuadrilla’s charts, the baseline for PM2.5 is about 13ug/m3 but measurements in March were more than 25ug/m3. The measurement for MP10 in March was about 42ug/m3, compared with a baseline reading of about 41. All the other measurements were below the baseline.
Surface and ground water
In January, the level of diesel at on of the surface water monitoring stations was above the baseline. And in March, methane in groundwater at one monitoring station in the geological strata, Middle Sands, was almost at the peak baseline readings. All the other measurements were below the baseline.
Categories: Industry
DRILL OR DROP? 
Of course opponents will say they cannot be trusted. Neither can the Environment Agency, the HSE, the Royal Society, and many other engineering groups. Thats because its all a Tory plot to kill people. Ask Ian R Crane. Its one of his obsessions!
They only trust Ian Crane. He is their God.
Cuadrilla will have to drill a bit deeper to find their god
You assume that they will get to the drilling. May is coming already and they are still no where near setting up the rig let alone drilling which will take another 6 months.
A reminder of the real Cuadrilla.
Cuadrilla has been warned by ministers over its “performance as a licensee” at one of its Lancashire sites. It “failed to recognise the significance” of damage to a gas fracking well in 2011 and did not report it to government officials for six months, leading to a stern reprimand by the energy minister, papers released under the Freedom of Information Act show.
Maybe Cuadrilla have decided to be more forthcoming and more considerate of local communities.
Apparently not.
Cuadrilla website regarding their Becconsall well.
“In accordance with the planning consent well plugging and site restoration work WILL be carried out after the wintering bird’s season, ending 31st March 2016 and BEFORE THE DEADLINE SET BY LANCASHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL OF 31st OCTOBER 2016”
No work even started in 2016. None started to date.
A leopard doesn’t change it’s spots
The air quality is of great concern to myself at the site entrance, particularly the particulate count and the nature of the particles. The four sensors, I believe are high & away from the pad, in the corner of the fields as is the independent air monitor close to Wensley’s farmhouse(s).:-
http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/groundwater/shaleGas/monitoring/lancsDataSummary.html
Also,there doesn’t seem to be any monitoring of the types of particles – any one as to of any ideas?
Non withstanding baselines & levels going up or down the wikipedia researched correlation of particlulate counts with cancer suggest it’s not a good place to be:-
Particulates are the deadliest form of air pollution due to their ability to penetrate deep into the lungs and blood streams unfiltered, causing permanent DNA mutations, heart attacks, and premature death.[8] In 2013, a study involving 312,944 people in nine European countries revealed that there was no safe level of particulates and that for every increase of 10 μg/m3 in PM10, the lung cancer rate rose 22%. The smaller PM2.5 were particularly deadly, with a 36% increase in lung cancer per 10 μg/m3 as it can penetrate deeper into the lungs.
Based on even these baseline figures’ all protesters, police & security are liable to a premature death before any flare/venting fall out and the bank of diesel frack pressure generators are cranked into action…
Perhaps the cunningly chosen location of the site entrance at a low point in the topology on a busy road with poor baseline air quality is to dissuade long term protest – all part of the Tory plot to kill people, of course.
It would appear that air particle monitoring is required at the bottom of the basinl by the main entrance, parking area access road to test fracking pad!
This is where the bulk of the protestors, the Constabulary, the Northern Security personnel and Yates staff spend most of their time!
Personally I spend most of my protest time opposite K9 Kennels and by Wensley’s Farm, at the top of the basin!
See you all at Maple Farm tomorrow lunchtime for a chat or PNR early Monday morning.
Be good. Stay safe.
Considerate of Cuadrilla to have a public portal to show various measurements at their development sites…this is way more than any company is willing to do for us in US…..now how to know if these figures are accurate …will they let a team of citizens come and do some testing….let’s say once a week…..and compare results….or have a team of citizens observe the testing somehow…?
Vera
I agree, great that this is being done. However the anti people do have a point, in that company web sites are not kept up to date. But it is worth encouraging them rather than dissing everything they do. After all, somewhere a human, with a family and mortgage, hope and dreams of a career and their children’s welfare is managing the monitoring and likewise updating the website.
Likewise for people who are against fracking.
Good that they report the good and the bad. Whatever your views on fracking sometimes a bit of encouragement goes a long way.
Re citizen testing, why not, count me in.
Cheers P
All the rubbish about fracking..It will create many jobs and help the local economy..Why isn’t there a pro fracking group… Count me in
Cuadrilla figures for jobs for locals. Page 4. Section 1.6 “Benefits of the development”
Exploration and production.
http://planningregister.lancashire.gov.uk/DisplayImage.aspx?doc=cmVjb3JkX251bWJlcj01NTIwJmZpbGVuYW1lPVxcYWQubGFuY3NjYy5uZXRcQ29ycG9yYXRlXERhdGF3cmlnaHRcUGxhbm5pbmdcMDgtMTAtMDk3M1xCZWNjb25zYWxsIDIgLSBTdXBwb3J0aW5nIFN0YXRlbWVudC5wZGYmaW1hZ2VfbnVtYmVyPTgmaW1hZ2VfdHlwZT1wbGFubmluZyZsYXN0X21vZGlmaWVkX2Zyb21fZGlzaz0xMC8wOC8yMDEwIDA3OjMwOjU4
Not really many jobs and produced at a loss at today’s market value.
There isn’t a pro-fracking group because there is nothing to pro-fracking about!