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Maximize the positive press from your feature in Reprints Maximize the marketing power of your feature. Eprint Give your feature a presence on the World Wide Web. Custom Plaques Showcase your great press in a public area for all to admire. Eyes from Above Satellite Interferometry Monitors Operational Subsidence 22 Remnants of War How Can GIS Benefit Demining Activity? 26 Marcellus Shale The 14 GIS Technology Helps Map and Monitor a High-Profile Natural-Gas Play (01) Cover GEO0212.indd 1 BY BRUCE E. STAUFFER AND ROGER A. BANNISTER 2/9/2012 12:05:42 PM Marcellus Shale The GIS Technology Helps Map and Monitor a High-Profile Natural-Gas Play concern about the potential for ground- and surface-water contamination. In response, state agencies have issued regulations governing the application and approval of natural-gas well permits, and GIS technology is automat- ing the production of well-permit maps. Energy companies are sampling ground- and surface- T 14 GEO W ORLD / FEBRUAR Y 2O12 water supplies prior to drilling to document water quality, and they're using GIS to map sample locations and link test results. GIS tools are being used to model poten- tial water-impoundment locations and well-site setback restrictions. he density and geographical extent of Marcellus Shale natural gas wells, and their proximity to popu- lation centers in the northeast, has raised public In addition, secure interactive Web GIS is being used collaboratively among remote offices to update data and inform management of work progress, and publicly accessible interactive Web sites are helping to inform the public about where new wells are planned and which companies are drilling in their communities. Well-Site Permitting and Water-Supply Sampling "Obtaining a pre-drilling water sample from all supplies within 1,000 feet of a gas well should be a standard business practice" (Governor's Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission Report, July 22, 2011). Operators must obtain a well permit prior to conduct- ing any well drilling or alteration activities. The permit application requires a map illustrating the surveyed location of the planned well, the proposed path of the borehole, and the names of the surface landowners or water purveyors with water supplies within 1,000 feet of the well (Oil and Gas Act, section 601.201(b)). GIS helps streamline preparation of plat maps by incorporating surveyor measurements with tax-parcel data from local assessors and political boundaries. Notification letters can be automatically prepared by buffering the proposed well location and spatially inter- secting the buffer with the tax parcels. The Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act requires well operators to repair or replace water supplies that are fouled or diminished due to well drilling or alteration activities. If a water supply within 1,000 feet of a well is polluted within six months of the activity, then the damage is assumed to be caused by the activity unless the operator can demonstrate that the supply had been polluted or the landowner refused water sampling prior to drilling or altering the well. The Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission Report recommended increasing the radius to 2,500 feet and the timeline lic concerns over the use of to 12 months, reflecting pub- horizontal drilling and hydraulic-fracturing (hydrofracking) techniques. Property-owner and environmental data management can quickly become overwhelming with even modest drilling activity, which makes it imperative for opera- tors to proactively monitor sampling programs. GIS helps operators and their environmental consul- tants manage pre-drill water-survey programs by auto- mating the plotting of well locations, creating radial buffers to establish sampling areas, and intersecting with tax parcels to determine property ownership. Tax- parcel data are available from many counties, often with little or no cost, as well as from vendors who compile parcel data into consistently formatted regional/ national datasets. Maintaining a centralized parcel Figure 1. A high-resolution drainage network was produced via watershed modeling. THE ESSENTIAL V OICE O F T H E INDUS TR Y FEBRU AR Y 20 12 Advancing Geology From Data Creation to Map Production 18 dataset reduces redundant sampling where radial sampling buffers overlap, and it can help coordinate sampling efforts among environmental consultants. Sample locations captured with high-accuracy GPS can be logged into the operator's environmental data management system and easily plotted in GIS. Now offering short-run reprints! Order 100 copies or less. Figure 2. An image of a regulatory well site indicates setback buffers. FEBRUAR Y 2O12 / WWW . GEOPLA CE . COM 15 (14-17) marcellus shale feature GEO0212tddn.indd 14 2/9/2012 12:13:15 PM (14-17) marcellus shale feature GEO0212tddn.indd 15 2/9/2012 12:13:22 PM For custom reprints contact us today! Call (678) 292-6054 or email cnaughton@m2media360.com. Resource Extraction