By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — The state Oil and Gas Commission has received six complaints of fouled water wells in the area of natural gas drilling in the Fayetteville Shale play, the commission’s director told a legislative panel Tuesday.
Larry Bengal told the Administrative Rules and Regulations Subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council the six wells possibly could have been affected by nearby drilling, but a connection was impossible to prove.
Bengal was responding to questions from Rep. Tracy Pennartz, D-Fort Smith, who asked why some people in the Fayetteville Shale drilling area in north-central Arkansas have reported drawing murky or bad-smelling water from their private wells despite having had no problems with the wells in the past.
“Do you have any conjecture about what would cause that, since the only external event that changed was the activity by the oil and gas companies?” Pennartz asked.
Bengal said tests of the well water have detected no drilling fluids, but vibrations from drilling may have increased the amount of sediment in the water.
“It’s a physical disruption, if it’s that. It’s not intrusion of the well bore fluids,” he said.
“So is there a causal relationship?” Pennartz asked.
“That’s my opinion. We can’t prove what I just said, other than the circumstantial evidence of the well drilling nearby,” Bengal said.
In an interview later, Pennartz said the Fayetteville Shale play does not extend into her district, but “of course we’re all concerned about the impact this has on us on a statewide basis.”
Pennartz also said the problem may be more extensive than the small number of complaints would suggest.
“They have six recorded complaints, but that doesn’t mean there might not be more wells out there of people who just think there’s nothing that can be done,” she said.
Drilling in the Fayetteville Shale play began when Southwestern Energy Co. drilled its first natural gas well there in 2004. By April 30 of this year, slightly more than 1,600 wells were producing in the area, according to the Oil and Gas Commission’s Web site.
