Nearly three years later, you have to know what to look for. It takes a hard look at the flood plains over the banks of the Kalamazoo River to see the effects of an incident that covered the southwest Michigan area with oil.
My awareness of water-related issues has gone up ten-fold since I joined The Driller in November. I think a lot about water, how we consume it, how we get it and how precarious it can be as a resource. So, I jumped at the chance to explore these issues in the field with the Institutes for Journalism & Natural Resources (IJNR).
Once the site is prepared and the rig is on location, it gets interesting. While the rig is rigging up, additional supplies such as fuel, mud, chemicals, water, bits, mud motors and sometimes housing must be brought in. Also, additional service companies must be coordinated to arrive when needed. Mud engineers, mud loggers, cementers and directional drillers are part of most modern wells.
Remember that teacher from your early school years that always encouraged you to stay between the lines when coloring? Well, Lindsay Wadsworth never thought much of staying between the lines. So it is ironic that many years later, he earns his living not just by staying within the lines, but by creating them.
In part one of our two-part series on the legal implications of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") for drillers, published in the January 2013 issue of The Driller, we provided an up-to-date nationwide review of fracking-related litigation in order to illustrate various third-party litigation risks undertaken by those engaged in the practice.
Ecologix Environmental Systems has introduced its Integrated Treatment System (ITS) platform, a water management system to clean and recycle water for fracking operations.
One of the most hotly debated topics in America today is the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as "fracking," and the benefits and risks proponents and opponents associated with the practice.
"In May of this year, the International Energy Agency issued a report that made an economic case for the adoption of safer drilling practices in gas production facilitated by hydraulic fracturing."