AEI News

West Virginia University mine safety expert Keith Heasley has been selected as one of three directors of a $48 million research fund created to improve mine safety in the wake of the Upper Big Branch disaster that killed 29 West Virginia coal miners in April 2010.
Coal miner and Keith Heasley

Heasley is, the Charles T. Holland Professor of Mining Engineering in the Department of Mining Engineering in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. Other directors are: Michael Karmis, the Stonie Barker Professor of the Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering and the director of the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech; and David Wegman, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Work Environment at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and adjunct professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Read More on WVU Research Portal

Former undersecretary for science in the U.S. Department of Energy Dr. Steven E. Koonin told a WVU audience in Morgantown that as the U.S. continues to wrestle with solving energy problems, the DOE – the federal agency charged with playing a major role in that effort – should make some key adjustments to produce effective results.

Koonin was the keynote lecturer in the Dow/Union Carbide WVU Chemical Engineering Seminar Series. His lecture was titled, “Addressing America’s Energy Challenges.”

Koonin called for a more balanced energy portfolio. He said that currently, DOE efforts are weighted more toward stationary energy research efforts like clean power plants and upgrades to the nation’s power grid. He said there should be equal attention given in DOE strategies to transportation research like electrifying vehicle fleets and deploying alternative fuels.
He outlined six strategies addressing what he called the stationary logic and the transport logic. He said Americans need to understand key facts that underlay strategic planning for both areas.

Koonin’s transport logic approach rests on these contentions:

• The U.S. is coupled to a global oil market that features high and volatile prices, insecurity and growing demand.
• Increased domestic production fixes jobs and the balance of payments in the global oil market but does not affect price because the U.S. cannot produce enough fast enough to affect the global market. Strategic energy planning should go beyond energy independence to address price independence.
• The U.S. must “decouple from the global oil market” by reducing oil demand materially through efficiency; shifting to non-fungible fuels like hydrogen or natural gas; and advance biofuels.
• He said he supports strategies to address the transport logic area issues including:
• Increasing vehicle efficiency because it has the nearest-term impact with existing technologies.
• Electrifying the nation’s light duty transportation fleets in a graceful progressing transition from internal combustion engines to hybrid electric vehicles to plug-in electric vehicles to battery electric vehicles that use chemical energy.
• Deploying alternative hydrocarbon fuels biased toward fuels for heavy duty vehicles.
• Koonin observed that an example of effective under the transportation field is turbulence modeling for heavy duty trucks to increase fuel efficiency.
• “The turbulent flow between the tractor and the trailers and the vortex underneath the tractor increases drag and fuel consumption,” he explained. “SmartTruck UnderTray add-on accessories predict a 12 percent drag reduction and a 6.9 percent increase in EPA-certified fuel efficiency.”
• Koonin said there are challenges involved with the transition of transportation industry including:
• Cost, performance and physical characteristics of batteries.
• Maintenance of an adequate supply chain for rare-earth elements, lithium and manufacturing requirements to make batteries available.
• Proliferation of infrastructure, standardization of grid interface, length of charging times and consumer behavior all associated with charging vehicle batteries.
• Koonin’s stationary logic approach rests on these contentions:
• Generation, transmission and demand of energy involved in stationary energy are interdependent and much more complicated that factors involved with transport logic.
• The U.S. is energy independent in the stationary energy area as it works to address competitiveness and environmental impacts; the strengthening of domestic innovation and manufacturing capability; and keeping energy affordable and clean.
• His strategies in support of stationary logic include:
• Increasing energy efficiency in buildings and industry because it represents the most immediate route to increasing energy productivity.
• Modernizing the grid because it will not only increase reliability and security, but also give greater control to meet clean energy aspirations.
• Deploying clean electricity because it accommodates retirement of existing generators and reduces environmental impacts of greenhouse gas emissions.

According to Koonin, a keen understanding of the interfaces between all building subsystems is an absolute requirement in efforts to attain maximum energy efficiency. Windows and lighting, HVAC, building materials, on site power and heat, appliances, natural indoor ventilation and thermal and electrical storage are all systems that must be integrated to attain success in increasing the energy efficiency in buildings.

He said tools to design new buildings and to embed in new buildings for energy analysis activity are critical to energy efficiency success along with creation of operating platforms with sensors, communication, controls and real time optimization.

Modernizing the nation’s electrical service grid will involve 200,000 miles of transmission lines that distribute about 1 TW of power and involve more than 3,500 utility organizations across the U.S. He said desired outcomes for grid updates are increased reliability; efficiency; security; flexibility to integrate intermittent renewable; two-way flow of information and power; and growth to handle growing demand.

Koonin said challenges involved with improving the electrical grid including the need for active management to balance generation, transmission and demand at all times and the danger of possible disruptions in ideal operations as work continues.

Clean electricity technologies that should be deployed under Koonin’s stationary logic approach include: solar photovoltaic, concentrated solar, wind, nuclear, natural gas, hydro, solar thermal, geothermal and carbon capture and storage.

He noted that one of the trouble spots in Department of Energy work to encourage research and development is the uneven attention it gives to transport and stationary energy development. He said out of a total energy technology budget in Fiscal Year 2011 of $3 billion, 26 percent was devoted to transport development while stationary topics received 74 percent of the energy technology budget. In addition more than 50 percent of effort in the stationary category was devoted to clean electricity initiatives with the rest of the funding assigned to areas like grid improvements and building and industrial efficiency. He called for more equality in the approach.

Koonin also suggested that the Department of Energy integrate more analytic capabilities into its overall efforts by adding more emphasis on the business, market, and policy and social science sides of energy development.

Finally, Koonin said that the agency should become more selective in the technology initiatives it pursues.

Koonin was confirmed by the Senate on May 19, 2009 as the second Undersecretary for Science in the U.S. Department of Energy. He brought to the post a distinguished career as a university professor and administrator at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as well as experience in industry.

Koonin joined the Caltech faculty in 1975, was a research fellow at the Neils Bohr Institute during 1976 – 1977, and was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow during 1977 – 1979. He became a professor of theoretical physics at Caltech in 1981 and served as Chairman of the Faculty from 1989 – 1991. He was the seventh provost of Caltech (from 1995 – 2004). In that capacity, he was involved in identifying and recruiting one-third of the Institute’s professorial faculty and left an enduring legacy of academic and research initiatives in the biological, physical, earth, and social sciences, as well as the planning and development of the Thirty-Meter Telescope project.

As the Chief Scientist at BP between 2004 and early 2009, Koonin developed the long-range technology strategy for alternative and renewable energy sources. He managed the firm’s university-based research programs and played a central role in establishing the Energy Biosciences Institute at the University of California Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Koonin was a member and past chair of the JASON Study Group, advising the U.S. Government on technical matters of national security. He has served on numerous advisory committees for the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense, including the Defense Science Board and the CNO’s Executive Panel. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a former member of the Trilateral Commission.

In 1985, Koonin received the Humboldt Senior U.S. Scientist Award and, in 1998 the Department of Energy’s E. O. Lawrence Award for ” his broad impact on nuclear many-body physics, on astrophysics, and on a variety of related fields where sophisticated numerical methods are essential; and in particular, for his breakthrough in nuclear shell model calculations centered on an ingenious method for dealing ,with the huge matrices of heavy nuclei by using path integral methods combined with the Monte Carlo technique.” He was elected to membership in the US National Academy of Sciences in 2010.

Koonin’s research interests have included nuclear astrophysics; theoretical nuclear, computational, and many-body physics; and global environmental science. He has been involved in scientific computing throughout his career and is a strong advocate for research into renewable energies and alternate fuel sources. His academic research in computational and nuclear physics has impacted the direction of science both nationally and internationally. He has supervised more than 25 PhD students, produced more than 200 peer-reviewed research publications, and authored or edited 3 books, including a pioneering textbook on Computational Physics in 1985.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Koonin received his B.S. in Physics from Caltech in 1972, worked as a summer graduate student at Los Alamos from 1972-1975 and received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1975.

The words coming from the president’s mouth could have come right from West Virginia University’s strategic plan.

“The easiest way to save money is to waste less energy,” President Barack Obama said during his recent State of the Union address just before proposing to help manufacturers eliminate energy waste in their factories and give businesses incentives to upgrade their buildings. “

“Their energy bills will be $100 billion lower over the next decade, and America will have less pollution, more manufacturing and more jobs for construction workers who need them. Send me a bill that creates these jobs,” the president said.

Mr. President, meet Carl Irwin.
Read More on WVU Today

Ensuring that thousands of Marcellus shale drilling sites comply with environmental regulations is a gargantuan task that one West Virginia University researcher is working to make as simple as checking a computer monitor from the office.

In West Virginia alone, more than 1,400 Marcellus Shale natural gas wells exist along the ridges and valleys stretching from Hancock County in the State’s northern panhandle to McDowell County in the heart of the southern coal fields. Drilling permits have been issued for another 1,200 and the count keeps climbing.

Often, the terrain makes the sites difficult to work in, and the lack of nearby power and phone lines makes them impossible to monitor using traditional systems.

But for Michael McCawley, a research associate professor in the WVU Department of Community Medicine, remote gas wells are as close as the computer keyboard in his office thanks to solar power and cell phones.

WVU Research Associate Professor Michael McCawley is testing air monitoring equipment he designed that will give him easy access to air quality data at a site in Washington County, Penna. where a Marcellus shale gas well will be drilled.

Photos of Prof. McCawley by Chitra Tatachar

McCawley has placed three wireless monitoring modules—one upwind, one downwind, and one crosswind—at a test site in Washington County, Pennsylvania where a Marcellus well is about to be drilled. He is interested in measuring dust and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, as well as light and sound coming from the site.

For the past year, he has been testing the wireless system and gathering background data before any drilling activity begins.

Each module includes a radio transceiver, a 12-volt, battery-powered monitoring device and a battery sheltered in a bright orange case. A two-foot by five-foot solar panel keeps the battery fully charged even on cloudy days.

A base station module which houses a small, notebook-sized computer with cell phone modem receives the data from the monitoring modules.

Each case is small enough to be hauled on an all-terrain vehicle and handled by an individual worker. “Set it and forget it. Let it do its job,” said McCawley.

Untethered from phone and power lines, the monitors easily can be placed between the source of possible emissions and the ‘receptor’— a school, hospital, or community— that may be in the path of any potential pollution.

The wireless system wings data from the test site to a website server that McCawley accesses with a few keystrokes at his desktop computer in his office in Morgantown, W.Va.
“The radio transceivers can send data up to 15 miles away, as the crow flies. They work by line of site,” McCawley explained.

No cell phone access? “Simply daisy chain the radio transceivers in the base stations along ridges until you get somewhere that has a cell phone signal,” said McCawley who has deployed a similar system at Coopers Rock State Forest nine miles east of Morgantown.

“Now you can monitor where it makes the most sense technically. Also, because the system is so portable, it can be rapidly deployed even in emergencies,” he said.
“The system is designed to be cheap, portable, off-the-shelf, and easy to use in a wide variety of situations. Plug and play,” he said.

McCawley expects each module to cost around $1200 while the monitors in them could range, “from a couple hundred dollars to five or six thousand depending on the bells and whistles you want to add. In terms of cost and range, our system is more advanced than anything else. One manufacturer wanted $1,000 per radio transceiver that had only a little more than half a mile range.”

A biologist also trained as an engineer, the sixty-something scientist has been at the forefront of air pollution and occupational health for more than three decades. From the ash-laden air of Mount St. Helens during its massive eruption in 1980 to the oil fires in Kuwait during the First Gulf War in 1991, McCawley has been on the scene monitoring air quality. For a man who likes to be where the action is, the Marcellus shale hits home.

“Energy can be developed in an environmentally sound manner and that involves quality control. Quality control requires monitoring. We need to give industry the right tools to control this thing.
“Companies could see a lot of benefits from the system. They could monitor their sites 24-7 to detect problems early when they are easier to handle. And they could promote good community relations by making the data publicly available on their own websites. In fact, Chevron has shown some interest in the technology,” said McCawley.

The project is part of a larger effort of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory. NETL is the DOE’s single national laboratory devoted to fossil energy research. One part of the lab’s research portfolio is to assess the environmental impacts of shale exploration, drilling and production.

The NETL has teamed with five regional universities including WVU to create the NETL-Regional University Alliance through which McCawley’s research is being funded. NETL-RUA is one of the major activities of WVU’s Advanced Energy Initiative, which was established to foster research needed to ensure that the development of energy is also environmentally sustainable.

tkw 1-20-12  

WVU taking long view of hydrofracking’s impact on well water quality

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The economic opportunities presented by vast reserves of natural gas in regions of Marcellus shale are accompanied by complex, controversial questions about the potential environmental impact of hydrofracking extraction methods. A pair of West Virginia University researchers is answering one of those questions with the support of a $27,500 grant from the USDA Forest service.

Nicolas Zegre, a forest hydrologist in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design and Shikha Sharma, a geochemist in WVU’s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, have joined forces to compare methane levels in well water before and after hydrofracking activity. The researchers will also try to pinpoint the source of that methane, as well as a radium isotope that degrades into radon gas.

Zegre and Sharma are studying water pumped from six wells that provide water to Forest Service campgrounds near Sutton Lake in the Monongahela National Forest. This will allow them to establish a baseline of methane levels in the wells prior to future hydrofracking activity, which is expected to take place in the next year. The researchers will repeat their evaluation of the well water after hydrofracking takes place.

“High dissolved methane levels alone cannot be indicative of methane release associated with hydrofracking” said Sharma.  As part of her ongoing study for the United States Geological Survey, Sharma has found that high concentrations of dissolved methane can be found in groundwater wells where no hydrofracking has taken place.

She and a graduate student, Michon Mulder of Vinton, Ia., who is pursuing a master’s degree in geology, have been trying to understand the sources of dissolved methane in samples collected from more than 40 groundwater wells in the Monongahela River watershed. All of these samples were collected from areas where there is no current drilling activity. According to Sharma, methane levels in those samples have varied significantly.

In the area of Marcellus shale development in West Virginia, methane in groundwater can originate from several sources.  The methane is either thermogenic – produced at great depth with heat – or biogenic – created by the decomposition of organic matter.

“Methane can be formed by microbial activity in shallow aquifers, coal seams, deep coal mines, storage gas fields, and abandoned oil and gas fields,” Sharma said.  Each of these sources of methane is likely to have unique carbon and hydrogen signatures, and can be used to fingerprint sources of methane.

“This approach allows us to understand what the source of this methane is,” Zegre said. “By understanding the difference, we have a sense of where the methane is coming from.”

“This new USDA project will help us add on new data points to this study,” Sharma said. “Further, in this study Nicolas will develop a more robust hydrological model for the study sites which would eventually help us in better interpreting the methane’s fingerprint.”

To define that fingerprint, Sharma is looking at concentrations and stable isotope signatures of carbon and radium isotopes of dissolved gases in the well water, while Zegre is studying the water isotopes overall.

Groundwater wells are generally dug to a maximum depth of about 400 feet, while wells associated with hydrofracking range between 5,000 and 7,000 feet in depth. Sharma and Zegre’s work will allow them to pinpoint hydrological connections, both before and after drilling into the region’s Marcellus shale.

Past research on hydrofracking-related methane levels in well water sparked controversy, in part because of questions about the baseline data available on pre-existing methane levels for comparison. This study offers an opportunity to both establish that baseline and to study the impact of hydrofracking on well water quality.

It also provides a unique opportunity for another WVU graduate student. Patrick Eisenhauer, of Jersey Shore, Pa., earned a B.S. in wood science and technology from the University in May. Undergraduate work for Muncy Hardwoods introduced him to the process of site preparation for Marcellus shale drilling. That sparked his scholarly interest in the subject, which led him to WVU’s master’s program in forest hydrology.

Eisenhauer describes the opportunity to work with the researchers as “absolutely amazing. I’m a very lucky individual to be working with them.”

Sharma is part of WVU’s ADVANCE and WiSE initiative to encourage and mentor women in science, technology, engineering and medicine. Zegre’s research on the causes of flooding in West Virginia earned him a 2011 Ralph E. Powe Jr. Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge Associated Universities. Zegre has also received funding from the National Science Foundation to study the impact of surface mining on stream flow and storm water patterns.

In addition to his work on the Forest Service project, Eisenhauer is creating an index that gauges the availability of surface water and estimates any fluctuations that occur in relation to Marcellus shale drilling activity. To do this, he will synthesize county data from throughout the Marcellus shale region – more than 50 counties in West Virginia, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

-WVU-

WVU faculty and graduate students are studying methane levels in wells before and after natural gas extraction activity. They are, from left: Shikha Sharma, assistant professor of geology; Michon Mulder, master’s candidate in geology; Nicolas Zegre, assistant professor of forest hydrology; and Patrick Eisenhauer, master’s candidate in forest hydrology. Photo by David Welsh.

CONTACT: David Welsh, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design
304-293-2394, dwelsh@wvu.edu

Difficult economic times force many consumers to cut back on luxuries and even some necessities. One area of the home budget that doesn’t seem to have a lot of flexibility involves utility costs. But a group of West Virginia University students helped some local residents look for ways to reduce their energy costs.

The students, enrolled in the Design for Energy Efficiency course offered by WVU’s Division of Design & Merchandising, teamed with New Vision Renewable Energy, to conduct home energy audits in the Bertha Hill area in late October.

New Vision worked with WVU to schedule energy audits on several homes in the area to identify opportunities for making them as efficient as possible. The efficient homes will maximize the potential of the renewable energy systems to be installed in the homes by New Vision.

“Homeowners are becoming empowered knowing that renewable energy is affordable and often includes common-sense solutions,” said Pamela O’Brien, New Vision’s director of operations.

Both New Vision and Chris Haddox, instructor of the design course, have support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation to promote sustainable and energy efficient design in West Virginia. The partnership between the non-profit and Haddox’s students proved to be a perfect fit.

“I learned about New Vision a few years ago when I was working as executive director of Mon County Habitat for Humanity.” Haddox explained. “Then when I came to WVU, I met Ken Means of the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, as one of his students was taking my Sustainable Design and Development class.

“Dr. Means was doing some work with New Vision and I was able to finally meet the folks through him,” Haddox said.

The student visit was the beginning of an ongoing relationship between the Division and New Vision. Haddox will continue to assist with energy audits and assessments. He’ll continue to involve students in the audits and assessments whenever possible.

In addition to building renewable energy solutions, New Vision also places a priority on building connections.

“We have a saying,” O’Brien said. “Give a family money for their power bill, you teach them to be dependent. Provide the training and resources to build and install their own renewable energy systems and you open a New Vision of possibilities for a lifetime. This is what we are all about, giving hope and a hand up to under-resourced families so that they can realize that renewable energy solutions are attainable and affordable.

“We like to see ourselves as an educational and innovative movement focusing on applicable technologies within the emerging ‘green’ economy and serve as a hub of collaborative discussion, training and invention bringing together green innovators, community leaders, youth, organizations as well as public and private partners,” she added.

Haddox and the Division of Design & Merchandising are certainly among those innovators. In addition to building sustainability into their programs in fashion design and merchandising and interior design, they’ve also developed a minor in sustainable design to emphasize that rapidly growing sector of the design and construction market. Haddox holds many sustainable design credentials including LEED and Green Advantage and has become a regional expert for general sustainability issues.

As forward-thinking as the effort is, the October work made Haddox nostalgic for a previous role: “The first Morgantown home that we worked on in this project is also the first home that was built under my watch with Habitat for Humanity.”

-WVU-

dw/11/30/11

CONTACT: David Welsh, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design
304.293.2394, dwelsh@wvu.edu

A multidisciplinary team of West Virginia University researchers working with the Appalachian Research Initiative for Environmental Sciences, known as ARIES, has received $500,000 to continue studies on the effects of surface coal mining that team leaders hope will help the industry and industry regulators implement progressive mining practices for regional application. 

 ARIES is a consortium of seven major universities led by the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech with support from private industry.  The new funding was provided through a grant from the Virginia Tech Foundation to the WVU Foundation. 

The WVU research team includes Todd Petty from Wildlife and Fisheries Resources; Mike Strager, Resource Management; Jeff Skousen and Louis McDonald, Plant and Soil Science, all in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design; Vlad Kecojevic, from the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources; and Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute  at the National Research Center for Coal & Energy. 

Other universities in the ARIES initiative in addition to WVU and Virginia Tech are: the University of Kentucky, Pitt, Penn State and Ohio State.   Ziemkiewicz will lead the WVU effort. 

Ziemkiewicz said that funding was provided to the Virginia Tech Foundation by the coal industry, but other than setting broad priorities, the research teams have developed their own research strategies.  Funding is expected to continue at a similar rate for at least five years. 

Ziemkiewicz said that “no one knows where this research will lead. Our only metric is publication of our results in the peer-reviewed literature.”

At WVU, Petty and Strager will evaluate watershed scale effects of water quality changes.  Skousen and McDonald will look at the weathering of mined rock to predict water quality impacts.  Kecojevic will study surface mining methods with a goal of developing an information system to help improve surface mining practices and coal recovery while minimizing environmental disturbances during overburden removal and coal extraction.

Skousen said "as we learn more about the chemical properties of mined rock we will better understand the duration and chemistry of discharges and help operators develop mine plans that minimize pollutant release to the environment. Our research team has been developing technologies for managing mining impacts to aquatic resources for decades. ARIES will enable us to carry these technologies to the scale of the entire Appalachian region and increase the likelihood that progressive mining practices will be implemented by the industry and regulatory agencies.”   

Ziemkiewicz said he believes that with the tightening of the Federal budget, innovative approaches are needed to support critical research.

“ARIES is a novel strategy for us,” he said. “While foundation to foundation funding is used in other parts of WVU, we had previously focused on competitive Federal grants.  That involves identifying a way to address a problem, waiting for a source of funds to develop and then competing for it.  That process can take years.  This is an extraordinary opportunity for our faculty members to set their own research agendas and move quickly into knowledge gathering.” 

Contact: David Saville (304) 293-7066

-WVU-

Ds/gg 11/11/11

Brian J. Anderson (far left) and Shahab D. Mohaghegh (left), engineering professors at West Virginia University, recently earned high achievement awards from Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu. They were recognized for their efforts with the National Energy Technology Laboratory, in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The NETL team was recognized for estimating the rate of oil flowing into the Gulf and also for developing options to cap the well. This exhausting work led to effective analyses of raw data, which guided major decisions to help reduce the environmental cost of the disaster.

During the ceremony, Chu remarked, “The employees recognized today have gone above and beyond the call of duty, demonstrating an exceptional commitment to public service. Their dedication, knowledge and skills have served to strengthen our nation’s economic and energy security and the work of the energy department.”

According to Mohaghegh, it was a heroic process, involving 15 people who work as part of his research team, known as PEARL or the Petroleum Engineering and Analytics Research Laboratory.

“We worked on it around the clock,” Mohaghegh said. “We had many facts, but there were far more uncertainties than facts that we had to deal with if we were to estimate the actual rate at which the discharge was taking place.”

Anderson and Mohaghegh worked as part of the Nodal Analysis Team, which used input from reservoir modeling and pressure and temperature conditions at the leak points on the sea floor, along with details of the geometries of the well, blowout preventer, and riser to calculate fluid compositions, properties, and fluxes from both before and after riser removal.

“It was such an honor to be recognized for our efforts in response to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster,” Anderson said. “The key component to our award is that it was a full-team effort and shows that across the Department of Energy, DOE labs and the university partners, we can work efficiently and effectively together.”

The award ceremony, held at Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, D.C., was actually the first time Anderson and Mohaghegh met face-to-face with the members from Lawrence Livermore National Lab and Pacific Northwest National Lab.

This fact is a “testament to how well we can utilize technology to break down geographic barriers to collaboration,” Anderson said. “My research team’s contribution was one component of a vast, coordinated effort for which the team leaders are to be commended.”

“Almost every day our calculations would go through a rigorous peer review that included first and foremost our contacts at NETL, Grant Bromhal and George Guthrie, and then the entire flow rate team,” said Mohaghegh. “Without their help and their detail scrutiny and critics of every single calculation that we were making, our work would not have the accuracy that it did.”

Mohaghegh also credited two WVU graduate students, Vida Gholami and Saeed Zargari, for their assistance in the project.

DAR/11/07/11

-WVU-

CONTACT: Mary C. Dillon
304-293-4086, mary.dillon@mail.wvu.edu

Representatives of the Marcellus Shale natural gas recovery industry pledged cooperation in arriving at new, fair and effective regulations to protect public safety.

A spokeswoman for the environmentalists’ perspective warned of the dangers of the hydraulic fracturing process used to recover natural gas from the Marcellus Shale play but was” heartened” by the pledges from the industry to cooperate on new regulations to address those dangers.

A legal representative of surface owners affected by hydraulic fracturing operations expressed frustration with the culture, history and politics in West Virginia that he said works against property owners’ efforts to seek protections. He promised court action in the future.

A member of the West Virginia Legislature explained the difficult path toward effective state regulations governing hydraulic fracturing regulations.

Industry representatives presented information they hoped would debunk what they saw as mythology surrounding the Marcellus Shale boom.

Those speakers and a dozen other presenters were a part of a day-long forum for discussion of issues associated with natural gas recovery in the Marcellus Shale play sponsored by West Virginia University’s Center for Energy and Sustainable Development, based at the University’s College of Law.

The event, funded through a grant from WVU’s Advanced Energy Initiative, was titled Drilling Down on Regulatory Challenges and drew a near capacity crowd of concerned citizens, lawyers, law students, environmentalists, energy researchers, educators, energy industry executives, government regulators and journalists to the Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom at the College of Law.

The energy industry is a cornerstone of the West Virginia economy,” WVU College of Law Dean Joyce McConnell said. “WVU is helping to shape the energy and environmental policies that go with that economic potential. That is why we created the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development at the WVU College of Law and that is why we are proud of this effort to bring an unbiased discussion of natural gas recovery issues to the people who can best use that information.”

Here are key points from each segment of the day of discussions in the order of their presentation. The entire Drilling Down on Regulatory Challenges is available on line.

Click on Each link to get to the details.

• Perspective of state regulators


• Federal role in regulation of shale gas production


• West Virginia legislative update on Marcellus Shale regulations


• Experience from other shale regions


• Model Regulatory Framework for Hydraulic Fracturing


• Keynote Speaker


• Perspective of the Natural Gas Industry


• Perspectives of other Stakeholders


• Local Regulation of Hydraulic Fracturing


• Economic Benefits of Hydraulic Fracturing

Perspective of state regulators

Stuart Gruskin, former executive deputy commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said:

• New York State gathered 14,000 public comments on a first draft of sweeping new regulations, and has a new draft out for public review and completed regulations are expected to be ready for implementation in  January leading to 2012 horizontal Marcellus operations

Randy Huffman, secretary of the WV Department of Environmental Protection noted:

• West Virginia faced with the challenge of dealing with a new drilling methods and a stampede of permit applications has been getting by with existing rules until new regulations are hammered out by the legislature.

Elizabeth Nolan, assistant counsel with the PA Department of Environmental Protection observed that:

• In Pennsylvania, the Governor appointed a Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission that developed 96 separate new recommendations for regulating the growing industry. Some of the regulations include increasing the required “set-back” for drilling pads from other structures; increasing penalties for regulation violations; and provision of new mechanisms for revoking issued permits.

Armando Benincase of Steptoe & Johnson PLLC said:

• In Ohio, where there are relatively few Marcellus Shale operations, officials have had the benefit of observing the proceedings in surrounding states in preparing for the next shale play development – the Utica Shale. Existing requirements call for the industry to register for water withdrawals in excess of 100,000 gallons and for all brine water to be disposed of through underground injection.

Back to discussions list

Federal role in regulation of shale gas production

Marcia E. Mulkey, regional counsel with EPA Region III said:

• EPA has a role to play through researching technologies related to natural gas recovery


• One reason the agency studies hydraulic fracturing is because the process is exempted from some federal regulations. The Safe Drinking Water Act says that the act of hydraulic fracturing, the injection to fracture, is exempted from the otherwise applicable UIC requirements.


• EPA keeps a close eye on industry activity on wetlands.


• EPA should be a partner in interactions with state regarding establishment of national standards and oversight of state regulations.
  
  

Back to discussions list

West Virginia legislative update on Marcellus Shale regulations

Del. Tim Manchin, co-chair of the legislature’s Joint Select Committee on Marcellus Shale offered the update. Manchin noted:

• Work on regulatory legislation began nearly three years ago and eventually resulted in House passage of a bill but the effort stalled in the Senate


• The House legislation served as the cornerstone for the Governor’s recently issued emergency rules


• The Joint Committee is charged with melding the original House version with ideas from the Senate for a comprehensive bill that should be adopted in a special session of the Legislature.


• Twenty-two amendments have been considered to the legislation dealing with qualifications for inspectors, KARST considerations for specific WV counties and mechanisms for additional surface owners’ input. Comments were collected on the amendments via a special web site.


• Legislators have considered amendments dealing with how to determine pre-drilling highway conditions and assigning the Department of Highways the ability to withdraw drilling permits if post drilling highway damage is determined; impoundment regulations implications for when companies drill six to eight wells on a single pad; distance of pads from roadways; replacement of water used from aquifers; and noise studies.


• Legislators continue to ask the industry to agree to ways to determine how many new drilling jobs are held by West Virginians and what steps can be taken to help prepare West Virginians to assume employment opportunities. He said he is confused by the industry’s reluctance to accept the approach.


• Other issues still being debated as part of the process include public hearing requirements for new drilling; permit fees that will allow the Department of Environmental Protection to hire additional staff.


• The Legislature is working to “take the fear out of the process for the public.”

Experience from other shale regions

Christopher Koulander, an assistant law professor from Texas Tech University spoke on work in his state related to shale gas recovery regulations and processes and noted:

• The Eagle-Ford Shale play is a significant energy development in the State of Texas and regulations are enforced in the state by the Texas Railroad Commission.


• A web site – FracFocus.org – http://fracfocus.org/ – which allows the public to learn about frac water contents by searching by state, county and well site, is a key part of the state’s efforts to ensure transparency.


• Texas requires operators to estimate air emissions before new permits for Barnett Shale permits are issues.


• The Eagle Ford Shale Task Force was formed by the Texas Railroad Commission to analyze issues in South Texas related to the development of the Eagle Ford shale play. The task force is composed of community leaders and elected officials, oil and gas industry representatives, clean energy representatives, landowners, environmental group representatives and others.  The task force was designed to seek consensus on future regulation needs and issues.

Joshuha Fershee, associate dean for academic affairs and research at the University of North Dakota School of Law spoke on experiences in North Dakota by noting:

• Gas recovery efforts in the Bakken Shale Play created a boom situation in the state with more than 200 drilling permits issued so far in 2011 compared to just 54 in all of 2009.


• Key societal issues related to traffic, housing, safety and crime remain to be effectively addressed.


• North Dakota is not properly staffed to address many issues related to the situation.


• State regulatory legislation amounts to: “We really really like fracking. Please leave us alone.”


• Short term focus on issues could lead to long term problems because one single fracking accident could set the industry back. A comprehensive approach is needed to address development issues.

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Model Regulatory Framework for Hydraulic Fracturing

Matt Watson, senior energy policy manger with the Environmental Defense Fund made these points:

• The real issue concerning hydraulic fracturing is well integrity.


• He and co-presenter Mark Boling of southwestern Energy worked together on an idea for model regulatory frameworks that serves as a blueprint states could use in well regulations.


• They put together a group of stakeholders from both sides and followed three principles in creating a model for regulations: that the framework should be as environmentally protective as possible, that it should recognize the important role of natural gas with regard both to the economy and the environment, and that it should acknowledge interim progress and variation among states’ regulations.


• The framework was reviewed by gas producers who provided feedback.


• Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Ohio used the jointly-crafted framework in regulation considerations and it could be helpful to West Virginia as well.

Mark Boling, executive vice president and general counsel for Southwestern Energy presented an industry perspective and said:

• Well integrity is the key issue to focus on in regulations because at 100 percent of the cases he looked at, the problem was with well integrity.


• Ensuring well integrity should incorporate four steps: evaluate stratigraphic confinement; observe quality well construction standards; and evaluate internal and external mechanical integrity of the well before hydraulic fracturing begins


• Industry needs to earn the trust of the people by telling them everything they need and want to know about the hydraulic fracturing process.


• The model framework is still in draft form and runs about 40 pages.

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Keynote Speaker

Dave McCurdy, president and CEO of the American Gas Association made these points during his talk:

• Local benefits of the booming Marcellus Shale gas recovery situation include increased employment, improved economies and higher state revenues.


• National benefits include a revitalized chemical industry and reduced dependence on foreign oil. Adding natural gas to vehicle-fueling infrastructure and switching the trucking fleet to natural gas would cut foreign oil imports by half and cost less than the $10 billion to $14 billion.


• There are two major concerns looking forward: pipeline safety and hydraulic fracturing.


• The U.S. Senate recently passed a pipeline reauthorization bill that advances pipeline safety that is under consideration by the House.

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Perspective of the Natural Gas Industry

Jerry Richey, executive vice president for corporate affairs and chief legal officer of CONSOL Energy Inc., presented the perspective and made these points:

• The West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio region is on the verge of becoming the energy capital of the nation.


• The industry supports strong government regulation


• Fracking presents no threat to the water table but all wells need to be done right. More than one million wells have been drilled in 27 states and there is no evidence of the practice affecting ground water. It is the responsible of the industry to keep it that way.


• There are no chemicals used in fracking that don’t already exist in homes under the kitchen sink.

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Perspectives of other Stakeholders

Hannah Chang, associate attorney with Earthjustice observed:

• State regulations on fracking are inconsistent and often inadequate. The EPA should play a role in researching and creating y baseline measures that states could then choose to exceed.


• The public and industry lack long-term data on the potential hazards and impacts of fracking.


• Even properly constructed well casings can deteriorate over time.


• Well pads, access lines, water supplies and roads are all disrupted by Marcellus Shale development


• It is true that benzene, lead and formaldehyde are in some homes, “but do you really want them in your house?”


• Attention must be given to issues related to potential spills, leaks and flowbacks that affect water supplies. Traditional wastewater plans are not equipped to handle the waste water from the fracking process.


• There is no peer reviewed research on the long=term affects of methane in drinking water.


• Until there are answers to these and other questions development should proceed slowly.
  
  

Attorney David B. McMahon, co-founder of the West Virginia Surface Owner’s Rights Organization noted:

• West Virginia fails to be proactive about problems and often, state residents have a passive, company town mentality.  The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has little power and is handcuffed by money, our culture and policy.”


• The WVSORO has been proposing specific regulations for incorporation into the legislation being developed including increasing the distance from a Marcellus Shale pad to 625 feet from an existing building.


• Surface owners are not represented on the board that determines the qualifications of inspectors even though a vacancy has existed for years.


• The state legislature approves funding for additional inspectors but will not do so as long as the industry lobbies against it.


• Money, culture and politics will prevent an effective bill from coming out of the legislature which leaves court action as the next step for those wishing to arrive at reasonable regulations.

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Local Regulation of Hydraulic Fracturing

Former Morgantown Councilman Don Spencer talked about his city’s recent experience in trying to limit fracking within one mile of the city limits and made these observations:

• Morgantown has paid the price of environmental damage in the past from abandon coal mine operations. The city saw the problems in other communities associated with fracking and wanted nothing to do with the process.


• While authority for most regulation is centralized with the state, Morgantown believed that a safety value provision existed in the state code that gives cities the power to take action when a nuisance situation is involved.  But, that theory was overturned in circuit court.


• More research is needed not just on the geology and energy aspects of the industry but also on the cumulative impacts on society and the environment from fracking.

James A. Walls, of Spillman Thomas and Battle, PLLC represented the industry in the Morgantown case and stated:

• Morgantown was mistaken to pass a ban on fracking and, instead, should have sought an injunction based on immediate and irreparable harm to the city, with no adequate remedy of law.


• Local bans are “a solution in search of a problem … fueled by fear, not facts.”


• Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator has said that she knows of no case where fracking has adversely affected water.

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Economic Benefits of Hydraulic Fracturing

Tom Witt, director of WVU business school’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, reviewed economic impact studies on the possible Marcellus impact on the state and noted:

• Anywhere from 6,600 to 19,600 new jobs could be created in West Virginia in 2015, depending on growth in industry activity.


• Job increases from the industry could bring in $400 million to $890 million in wages.


• The gas industry offers plenty of new jobs — not just job shifts, and not fly-by-night openings.

Thomas Kinnaman, an economist with Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, disagreed with many of the projections and said:

• Marcellus activity may simply shift workers from other jobs — dairy truckers become gas rig truckers, for instance — rather than create new jobs.


• West Virginia could stem the tide of out-of-state workers coming in by training native workers, but those native workers will follow the industry when it moves to other fields.


• This forecast could be wrong if the state can balance regulation with economic and social benefits. One good thing to do is to find the right tax rate, and raise the optimal amount of income while the industry lasts.

The Center for Energy and Sustainable Development is an energy and environmental public policy and research organization at the WVU College of Law. The Center focuses on promoting practices that will balance the continuing demand for energy resources—and the associated economic benefits—alongside the need to reduce the environmental impacts of developing the earth’s natural resources.

The Advanced Energy Initiative at West Virginia University coordinates and promotes University-wide research in science, technology and public policy. AEI brings together a network of more than 100 energy researchers from four colleges and more than twenty centers for energy research advances.  AEI seeks to enable West Virginia to create new energy technology opportunities though discovery, engagement and innovation.

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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The debate over hydrofracking in regions of Marcellus shale drilling is growing. Many residents near drilling fields are concerned that the process will taint their drinking water with methane.

An important study led by one West Virginia University faculty member has found that dissolved methane gas already exists in groundwater where there is no shale gas drilling.

an assistant professor at WVU, moved to Morgantown last year after directing a core isotope research facility at the University of Wyoming. Her main research involves the use of stable isotopes to address issues related to water and energy. She is now researching the origins of methane gas in the Monongahela River watershed and other areas of this region.

“The source of methane gas can range from active or inactive deep coal mines, landfills, gas storage fields or microbial gas generated in a shallow subsurface,” said Sharma. “However, all methane is not isotopically the same. Depending on how and where this methane is formed it can have very different C and H isotope signatures, this gives us the ability to know if it comes from hydrofracking releases or some other source.”

Sharma’s research is being funded by a $25,000 grant from the U.S. Geological Survey provided through the West Virginia Water Research Institute. This money allows Sharma and her graduate student, Michon Mulder, to gather and test water samples from groundwater wells in the Monongahela River watershed.

The study is being completed in collaboration with scientists in the U.S. Geological Survey West Virginia Water Science Center in Charleston, W.Va. The study will allow the researchers to construct a picture of existing methane gas sources in the area, which can then potentially be used as a baseline for identifying dissolved methane releases associated with Marcellus shale gas drilling.

“There are some concerns associated with higher levels of dissolved methane,” continued Sharma. “The levels of dissolved methane higher than 28 milligrams per liter are considered potentially flammable. Because dissolved methane already exists in some of our samples, we need to figure out where the actual sources of this dissolved methane gas are located.”

Sharma believes that in an area where hydrofracking is becoming a common occurrence, residents and researchers should be aware of what already exists in the waters in some parts of the watershed.

“As a scientist, it is my job to stay focused on the scientific perspective of this study while staying neutral on the political and social issues associated with it,” she said. “It is important to understand exactly how much methane exists in the groundwater now and what sources it comes from, so that unbiased decisions can be made regarding the potential and real impacts of hydrofracking on our water sources in the future.”

For more information, contact Shikha Sharma at Shikha.Sharma@mail.wvu.edu.

CONTACT:

Rebecca Herod, Director of Marketing and Communication

304-293-7405, ext. 5251, Rebecca.Herod@mail.wvu.edu

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