Geosynthetic Opportunities Associated With Shale ... - Geosynthetica

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A third opportunity for geosynthetics is the containment of cuttings from the drillingoperation itself insofar as proper safe and secure disposal is concerned. In this regard, it shouldbe mentioned that each well produces about 1000 tons (~ 75 truckloads) of contaminated cuttingsof the type shown in Figure 10.cuttingsFigure 10 – Contaminated cuttings from well drilling (compl. Wikipedia).These cuttings can, of course, go to a licensed public or private landfill but alternatively can beplaced in geotextile tubes at the site (or within a landfill as seen in Figure 11) and can even havea decontaminant added such that the treated effluent can be released to the environment. Theaddition of charcoal, activated carbon, phosphoric rock, or organoclays is necessary and all arewithin decontamination technology that is associated with geotextile tubes.-13-
Figure 11 – Geotextile tubes located within a landfill as they are being filled whereby theeffluent is automatically captured (compl. GSI).<strong>Opportunities</strong> at Permanent LocationsOf first priority in this category are the roadways into and out of the drilling site whichare necessary for the 20 to 30 years lifetime of the operations. Geotextiles and geogrids havebeen shown to save from 10 to 50% of the crushed stone thickness of base courses placed on soilsubgrades * . The functions of separation, stabilization and/or replacement are clearly indicated inthe literature since this application has been ongoing for about 30-years; see Figure 12. Not onlyis there a savings in stone base material, the distance from the quarry is significant in the totalcost of the application.A second way of reducing crushed stone thickness there is considerable economy offeredby using geocells as shown in Figure 13. They are filled with gravel, sand or locally availablesoil and their design (which uses a geotextile beneath them) is well established. Thicknessessaved are from 50 to 100% over the use of gravel by itself.* The old adage that “Ten pounds of soil and ten pounds of water make twenty pounds of mud” is seen at many drillsites particularly in the spring of the year.-14-
Page 1 and 2: Geosynthetic Institute475 Kedron Av
Page 3 and 4: asin is very significant since it w
Page 5 and 6: The Marcellus formation is a 400 M
Page 7 and 8: It should be noted that pending fed
Page 9 and 10: (a) Typical gas extraction operatio
Page 11 and 12: Figure 6 - Some very recent whales
Page 13: Figure 9 - Various underground stor
Page 17 and 18: Figure 13 - Thick (~ 8.0 in or 200
Page 19 and 20: Figure 16 - Vegetated MSE wall in P
Page 21 and 22: Hypothetical Example OnlyTable 2 -
Page 23 and 24: The pipe is generally HDPE or PVC a
Page 25 and 26: Figure 19 - Temporary containment s
Page 27: Closing CommentsNatural gas plays (

Geosynthetic Opportunities Associated With Shale ... - Geosynthetica

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