ANR - Environmental baseline conditions for impact assessment of unconventional gas exploitation: advancing geochemical tracer and monitoring techniques

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The recent expansion of the unconventional gas industry in North America and its potential advent in Europe has generated public concern regarding the protection of groundwater and surface water resources from contamination by stray gas, saline formation water and fracturing chemicals. A major scientific challenge and an indispensible prerequisite for environmental impact assessment in the context of unconventional gas development is the determination of the non-impacted baseline conditions against which potential environmental impacts on shallow water resources can be accurately and quantitatively tested. The objective of this Franco-Canadian NSERC-ANR project is to develop an innovative and comprehensive methodology of geochemical and isotopic characterization of the environmental baseline for water and gas samples from all three essential zones: (1) the production zone, including flowback waters, (2) the intermediate zone comprised of overlying formations, and (3) shallow aquifers and surface water systems where contamination may result from diverse natural or other human impacts. The outcome will be the establishment of a methodology based on innovative tracer and monitoring techniques for detecting and quantifying and modeling stray gas and leakage of saline formation water mixed onto flowback fluids into fresh groundwater resources and surface waters taking into account the mechanisms of fluid and gas migration. The new knowledge derived from this project will be of critical importance for ensuring the environmentally acceptable development of unconventional energy resources in Canada and Europe. Decision support and recommendations for stakeholders on meaningful baseline and monitoring programs in the context of unconventional energy ressources will be provided as final deliverable.