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After
a gas well is drilled and equipment and tanks are removed
from the site, it undergoes what is called reclamation. Ostensibly
reclamation means returning the site to its previous state
but what happens is partial reclamation at best. There is
no real intention to return to anything like a previous state.
What is done instead is to grade the site and plant grass
seed.
There
are a host of problems associated with the reclamation process.
Some of these are due to what is possible, but the majority
are due to the type of oversight provided by the state for
the process which is weighted in favor of allowing companies
to get away with doing as little as necessary in order to
save money and time.
The
reclamation process follows a series of steps:
(1) Treating and landspraying liquid pit waste and burying
the solid waste on site.
(2) Regrading the site and final clean up.
(3) Seeding.
For
West Virginia, the reclamation is done according to the West
Virginia Erosion and Sediment Control Field Manual
(referred to as Manual) and the General
Water Pollution Control Permit (referred to as Control
Permit). Rather than go into detail with a description of
the process, we suggest readers examine these documents. What
we'll do is examine the reclamation process as we've been
able to see it on actual sites.
For
us, we desire a reclamation process that will allow as much
of the construction area as possible (that not required by
the company to remain clear for well maintenance) to be able
to return to forest.
The
state has a publication that provides a partial guide for
the process to reclaim sites to encourage wildlife, Managing
Gas and Oil Sites for Wildlife. What the guide doesn't
explain and what the Manual doesn't require is stockpiling
of topsoil during construction to be used as final cover during
reclamation. Forest topsoil, while thin, provides ideal basis
for growth and contains a "seed bank" to encourage
rapid development of nativel and local plants and trees.
We
have yet to see a site where topsoil was reused. Every site
we've seen has been entirely bare mineral soil which lacks
the essentials for sustainable growth of the diverse plants
normally found in a forest.
In
addition, grass and trees require uncompacted soil. The Manual
prescribes bulldozer tracking which compacts the soil on slopes.
On level areas, such as the well pad, growth is extremely
spotty. Since drill rigs can weigh as much as 60 tons, it
is easy to see how the soil becomes compacted on the pad.
Where
sites have gradually returned to their natural state, this
is more the result of neglect than any deliberate intent.
Sites a decade or more old still show no growth of trees or
plants. This is due both to the compacting of soil and to
the types of grass planted which prohibit the growth of other
species.
These
problems aren't confined to just drill site reclamation but
are seen also in mountaintop removal
reclamation. Steven Handel's paper, Terrestrial
Plant (spring herbs, woody plants) Populations of Forested
and Reclaimed Sites (appearing in the appendix in Mountaintop
Mining/Valley Fills in Appalachia Final Programmatic Environmental
Impact Statement) shows just how serious this problem
is. A clearcut forest has a better chance of returning to
natural growth than "reclaimed" lands planted with
grass. The presence of forest along the edges of reclaimed
areas seems to make little difference in development of species
diversity.
Before
reclamation there is the construction of the access road
to a well site. We'll
deal with these first.
After
drilling the road and site
are reclaimed. Reclamation includes revegetation
of disturbed areas.
We've
created a list of online sources for further
reading.
Go
to Constructing the Road.
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