Who's That Drilling in My Neighborhood?! - A Guide to Public Information (Part 3)

This third part of our Guide to Public Information explains how to find Production and Inspection/Violation data for established gas wells. Part 4 (to follow soon) will deal with public data on Drilling and Completion of new wells.

Sources

In Part 2, we included an Overview of some of the most useful information sources. For data on Production and on Inspections/Violations, we'll mostly rely on two of them:

• Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
• FracTracker

The Pennsylvania DEP is responsible for licensing (to be covered in another part of this Guide) and for gathering and reviewing reports from operators, and for inspection and enforcement of operating facilities. As such, they are the 'primary' source for data on production and inspections.

FracTracker is an important 'secondary' source. The staff at CHEC (and some community volunteers) have 'imported' DEP data into FracTracker. This imported data can then be 'mapped' (using geographic coordinates from DEP) and compared with other information, such as public health and economic/political metrics.

Both DEP and FracTracker have their challenges. DEP uses its own terminology and, its web design has grown up with inconsistencies from page to page. And DEP, for historical reasons, has overlapping datasets which, while they pertain to the same activities, are not always 'in sync'. FracTracker, on the other hand, has some very powerful capabilities for comparing and 'mapping' data, but can be intimidating for the less-technically inclined.

What can we find there?

Let's look at each of the above sources in turn. We've provided direct links to the most pertinent data; but we also tell how to 'browse' to those same reports, so that you can see some of the other information along your way.

We'll take FracTracker first, as the more user-friendly of the two. Then, having seen FracTracker, the 'primary' data from DEP will make somewhat more sense.

FracTracker

The Home page for FracTracker is a 'blog', where CHEC staff (and others) publish their analyses of the data. Here you can find interesting analyses, often illustrated with data, and links to new 'datasets' and 'snapshots' that have been added.

• Dataset: A dataset is a collection of data (for example, downloaded from DEP and possibly augmented with other information). If you click on it, you'll see a description of the data and (usually) a link for downloading it. When you open the dataset, it will look like a spreadsheet.
• Snapshot: A snapshot is a picture (usually a map) which portrays one or more datasets. Depending on how the snapshot was built, it will be automatically updated when the underlying dataset(s) change.

For example, here are two 'snapshots', one for Production data and one for Violations.

Figure 1. Snapshot of the Dataset 'PA Marcellus Production by Well'.

Figure 2. Snapshot of the Dataset '2010 Oil and Gas Violations by Well Type in PA'.

We won't try to explain all the capabilities of FracTracker, only refer you to the tutorial, How FracTracker Works. But there is one thing we need to show you: if you select the 'Inspect' tool (an 'i' in a circle), and then click on a symbol on the map, you'll see a pop-up of detailed data about that particular location.

Figure 3: A snapshot of Marcellus Production (zoomed in to a local area).

Figure 4: A 'popup' with data about one particular well.

In Figure 5, we've highlighted the 'Farm' (name of the property owner), the 'Gas Quantity' and the 'Operator' (name of the drilling company) as well as the 'Permit Number'. The 'Permit Number' is the unique identifier for this well, which will help you to find other information from DEP.

Figure 5: Details of the data 'popup'.

NOTE: There are many other 'mapping' sites. One, at MIT, that we found recently is called WellWatch. For now, its capabilities seem to be less developed than FracTracker's. And, while we believe in 'letting a thousand flowers bloom', we don't have time to cultivate all of them. So this Guide will continue to focus on a few, selected sites, and will add new ones only if someone comes up with something truly compelling.

Pennsylvania DEP

On the DEP site, navigate to 'Reports' by clicking this link, or - from the DEP Home page - click on 'Oil & Gas' (on the left-hand menu) and then on 'Reports' (in the middle of the page). For now, our interest is in two of the reports, which you'll find listed on the left-hand menu of the reports page:

• Oil & Gas Production Data View or Download

This 'production' menu selection leads to a relatively self-contained section of the DEP site. You'll notice a new menu on the left-hand side, headed 'Site Menu'. Click 'Statewide Data Downloads' to see the list of spreadsheet reports. For example, as of this writing, the most recent Production report is titled 'Jul - Dec 2010 (Marcellus Only. 6 months)'. You can download it as a .csv file and open it with your spreadsheet program (e.g., Microsoft Excel); it has over 6,000 lines.

The DEP site also offers lists of Codes, which explains many of the column headings in the Production report and other DEP documents. (Note that some of these 'lists of Codes' are also spreadsheet files.)

• Oil & Gas Inspections, Violations Reporting

The 'inspections and violations' section of the DEP site is organized a bit differently. On the 'Reports' page, click 'Oil & Gas Inspections, Violations Reporting' (on the left-hand menu), and you'll see a list of reports, organized by date. For example, under '2011 (January thru March)' click Year to Date Inspections/Violations (including Marcellus) and you will download a spreadsheet.

With this spreadsheet, you can filter and sort (by County, say, and/or Municipality), or you can go directly to a particular well if you know its Permit number.

Putting It Together

So, to check on activity in your area:

• Use FracTracker to zoom-in on your neighborhood.
• With the 'Inspect' tool, find the 'Permit number' for a well site that concerns you.
• Get the DEP 'Inspections/Violations' file, and look under the relevant 'Permit number(s)' to see the inspection results for your chosen well(s).

This just in....

In case you are the one discovering a violation, or a health or safety emergency, please see the attached document, How to File a Complaint.