update from awe, page-11

Let me say straight up that I'm a big supporter of CSG and shale gas but I am all for proper regulation of drilling/fraccing/dewatering/extraction activities. The sooner government regulators get up to speed on what's necessary to ensure companies protect aquifiers the better - that means ensuring holes through aquifiers are properly sealed from the aquifier with steel casing through the aquifier and a high quality concrete job between the casing and the soil/rock above and below the aquifier. We all know what happened to BP's Deepwater rig due to a bad concrete job so we know bad concrete jobs happen. If it doesn't already exist we need technology to ensure concrete jobs are high quality and foolproof/cut corners proof. It also means an effective ongoing testing programe to check the concrete seals remain intact must be made mandatory on every hole ever drilled through an aquifier. It also means that effective non-toxic fraccing additives need to be developed if they aren't already available. I think we all understand that once an aquifier has been contaminated it can't be cleaned. We also don't want to be responsible for the contents of aquifiers to be lost maybe for good to deeper levels because it's drained down a badly sealed hole. Any water removed during the dewatering process needs to be treated and reinjected or put to good use. Once these details are sorted, public assurances given by the likes of NWE and AWE and sensible regulations and checks put in place then it should be full steam ahead.