Preston New Road shale gas site, 23 June 2017. Photo: NED
Drone pictures taken yesterday show surface water at Cuadrilla’s shale gas site at Preston New Road near Blackpool.
Opponents of operations at the site reported that four tankers had entered the site yesterday to collect rain water and another two had gone in by lunchtime today.
A spokesperson for the Cuadrilla said:
“I can confirm there has been no flooding on the site. There was heavy rain for a several days recently which did collect in the well cellar and surrounding low area of site, however the site has been designed to drain water in the event of such an occurrence and it is working as per design.”
But opponents of the company’s operations repeated concerns today that the area was prone to flooding and unsuitable for the site.
Preston New Road Action Group (PNRAG) said:
“It is quite astounding that Cuadrilla have stated that the Preston New Road site is not flooded, when drone footage demonstrates the absolute opposite. And this short period of inclement weather has followed a heatwave this week.
“Cuadrilla stated that the site didn’t flood following last year’s storms: a variety of demonstrative photography proved them wrong. One of our group’s land flooded heavily, with the run-off from the PNR site.
“Cuadrilla appear to have some discrepancy with reality at their exploratory site.”
Cuadrilla has said the wellpad is underlain by an impermeable membrane, designed to prevent surface spills or contaminated rain water draining into the soil. Rain water that falls on the site is supposed to drain into perimeter ditches.
The area around the well pad, at Little Plumpton, is low lying. In January 2016, the fields flooded, along with many other areas in the Fylde. DrillOrDrop post
At the time, a Cuadrilla executive told the Blackpool Gazette that neither Preston New Road nor its other proposed site at Roseacre Wood had been flooded.
The company’s flood risk assessment, which accompanied the planning application concluded:
“Rainwater storage (attenuation) can be provided through storage within the voids off the granular fill and within the perimeter drainage ditch. During extreme events, surface flooding (to a maximum depth of 50mm) is permitted which provides additional storage capacity. The containment volume of pad has been calculated as 1,170m3 over the well pad site area of approximately 1.55ha.”
The Environmental statement, also part of the planning application, said the risk of increased surface water runoff at Preston New Road were described as “minor beneficial” or “negligible” and “not significant”
PNRAG gave evidence to Lancashire County Council on flooding in the area when the planning application was being considered. The group’s legal team addressed the issue at the public inquiry following Cuadrilla’s appeal against refusal of planning permission.
Friends of the Earth also raised concerns about the risk of flooding from the site to Carr Bridge Residential Park and Moss House Lane, which were already prone to flooding. FOE questioned how large volumes of waste water could be managed in times of heavy rain and localised flooding. Details
Updated 28/6/2017 to correct date of drone pictures from 23/6/2017 to 22/6/2017
Categories: Industry
DRILL OR DROP? 
Looks like the UK will have to give up on dreams of energy security, international competitiveness, diminished fuel poverty, and greater national wealth and jobs because it rained on the well pad?
Might as well. They were only dreams – a bit like flying pigs really.
On the other hand, if the UK focused R&D, and new business on sustainable/renewable energy we could achieve world leadership in the field while creating jobs and eliminating fuel poverty. No brainer.
Start a crowdfund Philip.
Dreams like your idea that we’ll never see a high pressure system accompanied by fog, Philip? Man was that a good one! You’ve yet to explain how your system will compensate for three weeks of weather like that. Please do inform us all, Philip!
Thinking you were living in cloud cuckoo land! Renewables will fulfill all the above,with none of the clean up costs and risks to health!!!
LM, tell the people who live near rare earth minerals mines that there are no environmental or clean up costs associated with “clean energy”. Tell the people near the lithium mines. Tell the ones who live near the smelters that are used to make turbine parts. Or near the tellurium mines. Tell it to those who live near the aggregate mines used to gather rock for the concrete bases, or those who live near the plants that burn massive quantities of energy to manufacture clean solar panels. Or how about the tens of millions of people who would live near the massive solar and wind installations you envision in your dreams? I wonder how all the poor souls who will perish from fuel poverty in the name of your renewable dream feel about your “clean up costs and risks to health???”
A guy called hballpeeny tried this bleeding-heart fuel poverty stuff. You’re even less convincing, sorry.
Sorry that facts make you so uncomfortable, Philip.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/using-natural-gas-to-reduce-energy-poverty/
Note the disclaimer regarding the authors views by Scientific American at the end. Shame on them for publishing that. Promoting gas to countries without an existing pipe network infrasructure is simply deranged. Not to mention cate impacts … Africa is already suffering greatly from GW.
No discomfort … here’s an article from the same journal without the disclaimer: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-can-contaminate-drinking-water/
Why not just pump it into the adjacent fields, its only rain water?
Not just rain water. Contractors have been pouring lime onto the site for months in an attempt to stabilise the land. Lime contamination has already been detected in local watercourses.
http://www.aglime.org.uk/tech/agricultural_liming.php
[Image removed over possible copyright issues]
[Image removed over possible copyright issues]
Cheers. I actually saw Pink Floyd doing ‘The Wall’ at Earls Court (Early 80’s) – the only real flying pig I’ve ever seen.
I am jealous! I would have liked to have seen that concert.
Paul. I agree. Currently there no fracking or use of chemicals on site and so the flood water is just rain water. But I thought you said it only take 2 days to install the conductor and it is already 3 weeks and look like the rig still there and no hole is drilled.
Hard to tell from the photos but there is a lot of pipe shown in one of the shots (drill pipe?) so they may be installing surface casing in addition to conductors. there are two different sized casings in the shots, one will be the conductor and one may be surface casing to a deeper depth. I don’t have the well plan so not sure what there casing program is. And don’t forget they are drilling between 2 and 4 wells. It looks like one has been completed and they are working on the second but difficult to tell. However I agree it seems to be taking a long time. Hopefully it is lump sum and they are stringing it out until the big rig arrives on 27th June in celebration of the great Mike Hill debate….
Thanks for the reply Paul. Your insights and knowledge is greatly appreciated as always.
You do realise that local campaigners aren’t going to the Mike Hill question and answer session, don’t you?
It’s not for the already aware. It’s for locals who want to know more about fracking.
Of course they are going – it is a pre determined ego trip…
So blasé about fracking and chemicals!!
L.M. welcome to the uninformed BB. They are probably using more “chemicals” to set the conductors than they will be using in frack fluid.
Pauline Jones has just confirmed what I thought; no lime used in the Preese Hall frack fluid.
who said lime was used in Preese Hall frack fluid? The point of the drone picture is to highlight the site is prone to flooding. The enormous amounts of lime used on the site (far more than is used in agricultural liming as in your photo) have been to stabilise and solidify the ground which was so boggy that huge Mammoet trucks sank up to their axles and had to be towed out. After even a small amount of rainfall, tankers have to regularly take away the excess water. It’s summertime now. Just wait until winter. Cuadrilla were told at the planning stage that this land is subject to flooding but chose to ignore the evidence.
That’s downright deceptive Paul and you know it. More responsibility please.
http://www.shalefieldstories.org/randy-moyer.html
So Philip P, please tell us all what was used in the Preese Hall Frack Fluid?
Will you eat your hat when the Fluid tankers turn up with Hazard signs on them Paul?. Try and tell us that they won’t I dare you.
Why don’t you tell us what that Preese Hall fluid composition was …. then I can tell you what was found in the flowback.
From the EA in answer to my request:
Which chemicals were used by Cuadrilla in Preese Hall?
Preese Hall site is the only shale gas site to have been hydraulic fractured to date in the UK. Details of the chemicals which we assessed as non hazardous and permitted for use are listed on Cuadrilla’s website. They are:
• 99.75% of the shale gas fracking fluid is made up of water and sand, beyond that a very limited number of chemicals are used:
• Polyacrylamide friction reducers (0.075%), commonly used in cosmetics and facial creams, suspended in a hydrocarbon carrier;
• Hydrochloric acid (0.125%), frequently found in swimming pools and used in developing drinking water wells,
• Biocide (0.005%), used on rare occasions when the water provided from the local supplier needs to be further purified.
Cuadrilla only utilised the polyacrylamide friction reducer in their operations.
Happy Friday L.M. (I am in a generous mood tonight):
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mineralweb.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FFracking-Halliburton.jpeg&f=1
[Image removed over possible copyright issues]
https://roughneckcity.com/upimg/image/upimg_file/448/800
The text for Philip P’s photo post:
Halliburton was pumping the frac job at a reported 8,500 p.s.i. (pounds per square inch) when the 7″ production casing parted about 100′ below ground level. This sudden upward force also parted the surface pipe just below the casinghead, and the entire assembly, including the frack stack and the attached frac iron, became a giant bottle rocket, landing on the wireline truck. Miraculously, no one was killed, and the only injury was the operator in the wireline truck, sustaining a concussion.
Amazing – there are more injuries on the M6 daily in road accidents…
Does the drone operator have a CAA licence? They are using the device for commercial reasons and thus require one.
What happens when it rains up the road at Sellafield? (Rain is normal in Lancashire I believe.)
I have, long ago, had to deal with such issues, and it is just a case of what you do with the rain. Can you divert, do you protect certain areas that could admixture with water, do you treat water that could hold any contamination, will it just soak into the surface and if so, how quickly and will it filter effectively? Surprisingly, you can’t stop it. Exactly the same on farms and effluent running off as a result of heavy rain. At this stage, perhaps extra wheel washing could be the answer to any real potential of pollution to the environment. I think the Environment Agency is quite used to such issues-it was when I dealt with them.
Would currently welcome some of that rain down here!
Regarding wheel washing. This is an example of how Cuadrilla are flouting planning conditions and regulations. The installation of purpose built wheel washing facilities was a condition of the planning permission for the Preston New Road site. However, the only wheel washing facility has been a security guard with a small household pressure washer. Even that has now been abandoned with Cuadrilla giving the excuse that “It makes mud.” The local authority who are meant to enforce the Gold Standard Regulations have of course, rolled over to Cuadrilla’s requests and the police turn a blind eye to the mud and lime filled dust on the highway.
I just hope the drone has the permissions required from the buzzards, Ruth? Not fair to keep expecting them to attempt to see off these imposters. They have enough to do avoiding the raptor mincers and need some refuge on oil and gas sites.
Cuadrilla need one of these hawks:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/oct/10/hawk-attacks-drone-video
Time to shut down and watch the three BBC programs “Planet Oil” on catch up – recommended to all of you on this BB.
Seen it. Its a repeat. Very good.
Yes, worth watching.
Ruth I’d be careful about potential legal …[edited by moderator]
Please contact us directly if you have concerns over the legality of any material on the site, rather than using the comments.
Pauline-really!
Sorry to burst your bubble but liming of farm land is a standard operation to adjust the pH of the soil. It has been done all over this country for decades (at least) and I would suspect utilised millions of tonnes of lime. You can only grasp at straws if the soil fertility produces straw in the first place, and liming may determine that. I even have bags of lime in my shed, as many a gardener does but us gardeners are small fry compared to commercial farms. I will even offer some free advice for those with dogs-you need to lime those brown patches before the grass will regrow.
I thought the poor science conversation was dead and buried?
I live in a farm in an agricultural area so am well aware of the use of lime. What AE Yates have been using on the land at Preston New Road is far in excess of anything used in agriculture. For several weeks The police, security guards and local residents were all suffering from burning skin and eyes. I suppose to someone who supports fracking and has so little regard for the wellbeing of the public caught up in this nightmare, this is just something we should put up with and a taste of things to come so that the industry can go ahead.
Just thought I would add, Pauline, on the lime issue in case you have managed to scare anyone, that you can routinely see the liming of mountain sides by helicopter to maximise grass growth for grazing sheep. The same mountain sides that are the watersheds for millions of urban dwellers. This has never been done without complete environmental assessment and is done because it is safe and beneficial.
We will see when fracking actually happens that it will probably fall into the same category. I think you know that, which is why you are so desperate to stop the current tests.
Whilst on farming issues, if livestock are worried by dogs they can legally be controlled by the farmer (usually with a twelve bore.) If they can not be caught close to the incident but can be identified back to the owner they can be prosecuted for costs of spontaneous abortions, vet fees etc. Having observed drones causing stress amongst livestock I suspect some operators may be in for a bit of a shock shortly.
I really don’t know why you are labouring the point of the lime. The reason the lime has been mentioned by myself was to indicate that the contractors were having to spend weeks stabilising the ground because it is so wet and boggy. The fact that lime was detected in watercourses indicates that contamination from the site is not being contained, particularly since Cuadrilla have chosen not to bother installing a wheel wash, contrary to planning conditions.
I don’t intend to waste any more time on someone who obviously spends so much time sniping and takes delight in being argumentative for the sake of it. It seems to be trait amongst supporters of fracking.