Showing posts with label City of Adrian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label City of Adrian. Show all posts

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Savoy's Oil Production in our Area

I tried to pull the public data on well production on the DEQ website at http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-3311_4111_4231-98518--,00.html but it is not as easy as you would think. Data are stored as PRU (Production Reporting Unit) and have to be aligned to the well permit number, which could be easier, and is not always a 1:1 relationship, meaning a PRU can include several wells - and there is no convenient way to export the more than 2 months old data from the Online Data Base at http://ww2.deq.state.mi.us/mir/ so I had to write the numbers down. There is also a Microsoft Access data base that you can download but it is even more behind (lacks data for April and March 2013!). I finally managed to get these numbers:

First, Savoy is the 3rd largest exploiter of crude oil in Michigan at a 2013 total of 236606 barrels. The largest player is West Bay Explorations, which exploit the oil fields in the Irish Hills at 811494 barrels in 2013. Number 2 is Merit Energy at 457779 barrels. These numbers are from March 2013 though!

The below table is a small selection of the total oil production in our area. I just pulled the two wells closest to the City of Adrian and two wells more NW in Adrian township, and SE in Palmyra township. However, some wells in these areas are producing more, others less than the figures shown. The two selected locations are in no way representative for their areas.


Date Production in barrels

Heritage Park Witt Farm 60488 in Palmyra 60558 Pentecost Hwy
Feb-13 - 1697 150 2773
Mar-13 - 5628 108 4602
Apr-13 160 6162 101 3789
May-13 620 6050 91 3391























The oil companies have 45 days from the end of a month to report (yes, you heard right - they monitor how much they make themselves - there is no calibrated device that measures production) - then the overworked and understaffed DEQ has to compile and update the database - resulting in a time lag of currently more than 2 months. Therefore we do not have data on any newer wells yet - or more recent changes in production of present wells. Therefore there are no data yet on the wells on the Purse Funeral Home, Stratton's Landscaping, or the 1-3 wells off Carson Highway.


Thursday, June 27, 2013

Construction on Witt Farm - Open Flare on Purse Funeral Home

 Pipeline drilling rig on Witt Farm - more of Witt Farm for sale 

Pipeline drilling rig and oil pump on Witt Farm

Preparations of the separators to accommodate for more oil wells

Looks like there are 5 separators now

Flare next to the Funeral Home

Closeup of the Flare from Howell Highway shows soot and smoke

Flare from Howell Highway shows soot and smoke

And from a little further against darker background

You may also want to read the next post that will tell you more about the nasty stuff that is in flares!





Thursday, June 13, 2013

Friday, May 24, 2013

Response to the DT article: Health Department leaving oil regulation toDEQ

While I appreciate any news keeping the public aware of this topic, this article contained factual and implied misinformation that I will address with this response. A copy of this blog post will go to Patricia Bourgeois, Lenawee county health officer, Lou Schineman and Kristy Shimko, Michigan DEQ, and the Adrian city commissioners with the request to comment.

1. I do not think that the county's (or the city's) responsibility ends because a higher entity is watching upon us. If these authorities are not protecting our health and the integrity of air and water as essential resources adequately, then the county's health department(, and the city) are obliged to step in! I will provide good arguments that exactly that is needed.

2. The DEQ is NOT monitoring surface water, ground water or air quality near drilling or processing facilities. There are no baseline tests nor any follow-up tests done that could show changes through the activities of that industry. The burden of proof is once more on citizens to arrange for such tests and to do so - restricting them to only certain certified and very expensive test labs - and requiring commercial lab staff to take the samples - thus even raising costs further - which in the end leads to not many citizens being able to test their - our vital resources.

3. Most site visits and checkups (which do NOT include actual sampling!) are done by the oil and gas companies themselves. The DEQ is understaffed and instead of raising permit fees to have enough money to adequately monitor the activities of oil and gas drilling and processing, it is simply assumed that the oil and gas companies are honest and doing a good objective job in self-monitoring themselves. This is more than wishful thinking as corporations are by law required to maximize shareholder profit even at the cost of externalizing (environmental) costs - meaning having somebody else (often the government) pay the bill.

4. Lou Schineman, district manager of the DEQ’s Office of Oil, Gas and Minerals - or the staff writer Dennis Pelham, or an anonymous editor is wrong (does not know better or is misleading) when they state: "The gas being burned is basically the same as what is piped into businesses and homes and burned in furnaces, stoves, clothes dryers and water heaters". Several publications analyzing flare gases and volatiles found high concentration of toxic and cancerous BTEXs (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes) and other compounds in flare gases. They partially originate from the oil and gas deposits themselves and come up in the extraction process, or are in drilling aid chemicals or site treatment chemicals. I am more than happy to produce a full list of publications and chemicals upon request. Most of these dangerous chemicals are NOT in the natural gas that we use in our houses - the gas companies are required to take these dangerous chemicals out before delivering the natural gas to the customers.

5. Kristy Shimko - or the staff writer Dennis Pelham, or an anonymous editor are wrong when they say that "the flares are burning methane and nitrogen". Methane yes (about 65% of the flammable composition), but nitrogen does not burn and is as such not flared off. While it is great that the DEQ monitors for hydrogen sulfide, that should not be the only thing they do (see above)!

6. Why is the industry permitted to flare off and WASTE a potential energy resource while POLLUTING the air for SO LONG (more than 6 months)? They should NOT be able to acquire permits to start drilling before they have the infrastructure to collect and market the gases in place!

7. If flares are located on the country-side with maybe one farmhouse close to the flare (I am idealizing here - in the Irish Hills it is often many houses, and unfortunately not only owned by the profiteer of the royalties), it is an entirely different situation within the city of Adrian with quite a few residences around the flare on Witt Farm.

8. In addition to the danger to air and water by the drilling operations and the processing facilities (tank farms), the highest chances of oil and gas spills occur during loading and unloading (e.g. into trucks) as well as during transportation (by pipelines and trucks). Both areas are to my knowledge not regulated by the DEQ - and therefore the county health department cannot depend on the DEQ to safeguard health in these error-prone sectors of the oil and gas business. Looking on the shortcomings of DOT regulations for pipelines (remember the 2010 pipeline accident near Kalamazoo, Michigan?) and trucks (several accidents involving oil trucks every year) - the nearly operational pipeline from Heritage Park (and soon other surrounding drill sites) to the Witt Farm cutting through the River Raisin floodplain, and the increased truck traffic that the central facility on Witt Farm will bring to the city once more wells are connected, the county health department (and the City of Adrian) obviously have to get and stay involved to safeguard the health of our citizens!