Between the Poles: EPA delays peer review of Wyoming report on impact of shale-gas drilling on ground water

Geoff Zeiss

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Proven guidelines for reducing underground infrastructure damage at airports, university, industrial, and commercial campuses, and towns
There are proven measures that an administration, owner, or municipal government responsible for an airport, university, industrial or commercial campus, or town can undertake to reduce the risk of underground utility damage, the associated disruptions to operations and business and the danger for workers and the public.
Sharing information about the location of underground utilities
The U.S. devotes an estimated $10 billion annually to locating underground infrastructure. Every construction project requiring excavation involves significant efforts in locating underground utilities prior to and during construction to reduce the risk of injuries and unexpected project delays. But this information is rarely shared and the location of underground infrastructure is recaptured over and over again. There are successful examples around the world where municipal and regional governments have helped enable a shared underground utility network database.
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Building information modeling (BIM) has been applied to design-build construction projects for many years. A growing number of countries are mandating BIM for public projects. While the UK government has said that "...we know that the largest prize for BIM lies in the operational stages of the project life-cycle", until recently there has not been hard data to support this conjecture. Similarly there has been only anecdotal support for an integrated BIM and geospatial approach for design, build, operate and maintain projects. Now we are beginning to see data from real world projects that offer evidence for the benefits of an integrated BIM+geospatial full lifecycle approach for construction projects.
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The BIM and geospatial interoperability challenge is the latest symptom of the broader problem of integrating AEC and geospatial workflows, that has contributed to low productivity in the construction sector. After the announcement about a year ago by Jack Dangermond and Andrew Anagnost of a new relationship to build a bridge between Autodesk and ESRI technologies, I thought it a good time to review progress toward interoperability between the AEC and geospatial worlds.
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I thought it would be worth while to include here a talk I gave at GEOGRAPHY 2050 Powering Our Future Planet at Columbia University in New York about the importance of accurate location information about underground infrastructure for the future development of the energy grid. With some notable exceptions accurately recording the location of subsurface infrastructure including oil, gas, electric power and other energy infrastructure is ignored - perhaps this is a case of out-of-sight is indeed out-of-mind. The reality is that knowing the location of underground energy infrastructure is critical for national security, for disaster planning and management, for public safety and for economic efficiency. Everyone is aware of at least one disaster resulting from or exacerbated by not knowing where our energy infrastructure is - the explosions in San Bruno in California (2010) and Belgium (2004) immediately come to mind.
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BIM + geospatial interoperability would avoid another CAD + GIS quagmire
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Transmission line inspections for vegetation management and other purposes are essential in ensuring grid reliability and resilience. We saw the devastating effect of vegetation encroachment in the recent California fires, which in part have been blamed on failure to maintain properly cleared transmission lines. With drones that can cover great distances in a single flight and provide detailed and accurate aerial imagery of transmission lines and other infrastructure, it is now possible to almost completely automate this expensive process. Automating transmission line inspections for vegetation management using BVLOS drones not only saves money, but also could improve the resiliency and reliability of the transmission grid.

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March 08, 2012

EPA delays peer review of Wyoming report on impact of shale-gas drilling on ground water

I blogged about a draft EPA report addressing issues of ground water quality in Pavillion, Wyoming relating to shale-gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

There have been a number of reported instances of drinking water contamination in which a link to hydraulic fracturing has been reported. These have been taken seriously enought that the EPA has started a multi-year project funded by Congress to study the problem.

Separately, in response to complaints by domestic well owners regarding objectionable taste and odor problems in wellwater, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has investigated ground water near Pavillion, Wyoming. The objective of the EPA's investigation was to determine the presence of ground water contamination and to differentiate shallowsource sources (pits, septic systems, agricultural and domestic practices) from deeper sources (gasproduction wells).

EPA, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the State of Wyoming, and the Tribes have announced that they are going to do additional sampling. The EPA has also announced that it is extending the public comment period through October 2012 until additional sampling has been completed. EPA has also delayed convening the peer review panel on the draft Pavillion report until a report containing USGS data is publicly available.

Posted at 01:59 PM in Drinking water, Environment, Natural gas, Water and wastewater | Permalink

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Between the Poles

Geoff Zeiss

October 2022

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March 08, 2012

EPA delays peer review of Wyoming report on impact of shale-gas drilling on ground water

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