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

非常规天然气工业最近在北美的扩张及其在欧洲的可能出现，引起了公众对保护地下水和地表水资源免受杂散气体、含盐地层水和压裂化学品污染的关注。在非常规天然气开发的背景下，环境影响评估的一个主要科学挑战和不可或缺的先决条件是确定不受影响的基线条件，从而可以准确和定量地测试对浅水资源的潜在环境影响。这个法国-加拿大NSERC-ANR项目的目标是开发一种创新的、全面的方法，用于对来自所有国家的水和气体样品的环境基线进行地球化学和同位素表征。 三个基本区域：（1）生产区，包括回流沃茨，（2）由上覆地层组成的中间区，以及（3）可能因各种自然或其他人为影响而造成污染的浅层含水层和地表水系统。其结果将是建立一种基于创新示踪剂和监测技术的方法，用于检测、量化和模拟杂散气体以及混入返排流体的含盐地层水泄漏到新鲜地下水资源和地表沃茨中，同时考虑到流体和气体迁移的机制。从该项目中获得的新知识对于确保加拿大和欧洲以环境可接受的方式开发非常规能源至关重要。决策支持和建议 在非常规能源资源背景下，将提供利益攸关方关于有意义的基线和监测方案的建议，作为最终交付成果。

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.