Abstract
Currently, only a few states in the USA (e.g., Colorado and Ohio) require mandatory baseline groundwater sampling from nearby groundwater wells prior to drilling a new oil or gas well. Colorado is the first state to regulate groundwater testing before and after drilling, which requires one pre-drilling sample and two additional post-drilling samples within 6–12 months and 5–6 years of drilling. However, the monitoring method is limited to the state’s regulatory agency and to ex situ sampling, which offers only a snapshot in time. To overcome the limitations and increase monitoring performance, a new groundwater monitoring system, Colorado Water Watch (CWW), was introduced as a decision-making tool to support the state’s regulatory agency and also to provide real-time groundwater quality data to both the industry and the public. The CWW uses simple in situ water quality sensors based on the surrogate sensing technology that employs an event detection system to screen the incoming data in near real-time.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Petroleum Institute. (2009). Hydraulic fracturing operations–well construction and integrity guidelines. API Guidance Document HF1.
Colorado Geological Survey. (2003). Ground water atlas of Colorado. Special publication 53. http://coloradogeologicalsurvey.org/apps/wateratlas.html. Accessed 27 October 2014.
Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Website. Colorado Oil and Gas Information System (COGIS) Production Data Inquiry. http://cogcc.state.co.us. Accessed 10 October 2014.
Floodgate, G. D., & Judd, A. G. (1992). The origins of shallow gas. Continental Shelf Research, 12(10), 1145–1156. https://doi.org/10.1016/0278-4343(92)90075-U.
Gassiat, C., Gleeson, T., Lefebvre, R., & McKenzie, J. (2013). Hydraulic fracturing in faulted sedimentary basins: numerical simulation of potential contamination of shallow aquifers over long time scales. Water Resource Research, 49(12), 8310–8327. https://doi.org/10.1002/2013WR014287.
Gregory, K. B., Vidic, R. D., & Dzombak, D. A. (2011). Water management challenges associated with the production of shale gas by hydraulic fracturing. Elements, 7(3), 181–186. https://doi.org/10.2113/gselements.7.3.181.
Higley, D. K., & Cox, D. O. (2007). Oil and gas exploration and development along the front range in the Denver Basin of Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming. In D. K. Higley (Ed.), Compiler, petroleum systems and assessment of undiscovered oil and gas in the Denver Basin Province, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming—USGS Province 39 US Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS–69–P (pp. 41). Washington, DC: United States Geological Survey.
Holditch, S. A. (2012). Getting the gas out of the ground. CEP, https://www.aiche.org/sites/default/files/cep/20120841.pdf. Accessed 4 September 2014.
Kharaka, Y. K., & Otton, J. K. (2007). Preface to special issue on environmental issues related to oil and gas production. Applied Geochemistry, 22(10), 2095–2098. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2007.04.006.
Kharaka, Y. K., Thordsen, J. J., Conaway, C. H., & Thomas, R. B. (2013). The energy-water nexus: potential groundwater-quality degradation associated with production of shale gas. Procedia Earth Planetary Science, 7, 417–422. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeps.2013.03.132.
Li, H., & Carlson, K. H. (2014). Distribution and origin of groundwater methane in the Wattenberg oil and gas field of Northern Colorado. Environmental Science Technology, 48(3), 1484–1491. https://doi.org/10.1021/es404668b.
Osborn, S. G., Vengosh, A., Warner, N. R., & Jackson, R. B. (2011). Methane contamination of drinking water accompanying gas-well drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(20), 8172–8176. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1100682108.
Parkes, R. J., Gragg, B. A., Fry, J. C., Herbert, R. A., & Wimpenny, J. T. (1990). Bacterial biomass and activity in deep sediment layers from the Peru margin. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, A331, 139–153.
Rule 609. (2013). Statewide groundwater baseline sampling and monitoring. Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. https://cogcc.state.co.us/RR_HF2012/Groundwater/FinalRules/FinalRule609-01092013.pdf. Assessed 17 September 2014.
Sherwood, O. A., Rogers, J. D., Lackey, G., Burke, T. L., Osborn, S. G., & Ryan, J. N. (2016). Groundwater methane in relation to oil and gas development and shallow coal seams in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113, 8391–8396.
Son, J. H., & Carlson, K. H. (2014). Real-time surrogate analysis for potential oil and gas contamination of drinking water resources. Applied Water Science, 5(3), 283–289. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-014-0190-x.
Stolper, D. A., Lawson, N., Davis, C. L., Ferreira, A. A., Santos Neto, E. V., Ellis, G. S., Lewan, M. D., Martini, A. M., Tang, Y., Schoell, M., Sessions, A. L., & Eiler, J. M. (2014). Formation temperatures of thermogenic and biogenic methane. Science, 344(6191), 1500–1503. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1254509.
The Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering. (2012). Shale gas extraction in the UK: a review of hydraulic fracturing. DES2597.
U.S. Department of Energy. (2009). Modern shale gas development in the US: A primer. DE-FG26-04NT15455.
U.S. Energy Information Agency. (2011). Annual energy outlook 2011 with projections to 2035. DOE/EIA-0383(2011).
U.S. Energy Information Agency. (2012). Annual energy outlook 2012 with projections to 2035. DOE/EIA-0383(2012).
U.S. Energy Information Agency. (2013). Annual energy outlook 2013 with projections to 2035. DOE/EIA-0383(2013).
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2004). Study to evaluate the impacts to USDW’s by hydraulic fracturing of coalbed methane reservoirs. EPA 816-R-04-003.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2010). Water quality event detection systems for drinking water contamination warning systems: development, testing, and application of CANARY. EPA 600/R-010/036.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2012a). Study of the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources-progress report. EPA 601/R-12/011.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2012b). CANARY user’s manual version 4.3.2. EPA 600/R-08/040B.
U.S. Geological Survey. (2002). Planning for the conservation and development of infrastructure resources in urban areas–Colorado Front Range urban corridor. US Geological Survey Circular 1219.
Vengosh, A., Warner, N., Jackson, R., & Darrah, T. (2013). The effects of shale gas exploration and hydraulic fracturing on the quality of water resources in the United States. Procedia Earth Planetary Science, 7, 863–866. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeps.2013.03.213.
Vidic, R. D., Brantley, S. L., Vandenbossche, J. M., Yoxtheimer, D., & Abad, J. D. (2013). Impact of shale gas development on regional water quality. Science, 340(6134), 1235009. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1235009.
Acknowledgements
This project was funded by the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Noble Energy, and Colorado State University (CSU). In addition, support was provided by the Center for the New Energy Economy at CSU, Western Resource Advocates, COGCC, Colorado Oil and Gas Association, Colorado Department of Agriculture, Central Colorado Water Conservancy District, and West Greeley Conservation District.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Son, JH., Hanif, A., Dhanasekar, A. et al. Colorado Water Watch: real-time groundwater monitoring for possible contamination from oil and gas activities. Environ Monit Assess 190, 138 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-018-6509-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-018-6509-6