Cape Town - The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment’s new proposed amendments to the fracking regulations – drilling technology used for extracting oil, natural gas, geothermal energy, or water from deep underground – have been met with major resistance by civil society, environmental groups and experts.
The possibility of fracking in the Karoo has sparked heated debate for years as South Africa looked to extract shale gas through fracking to add to its energy mix, but stakeholders believe the regulations have been unclear and there are safety, economic and environmental concerns surrounding the possibility.
Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Barbara Creecy published the new amendments for public consultation earlier this month along with the intention to prescribe minimum requirements for the submission of applications for the onshore exploration of oil and gas intending to utilise hydraulic fracturing.
The public had until August 22 to submit their comments on the matter.
The Southern African Faith Communities’ Environmental Institute (Safcei) together with the Green Connection expressed that the proposed amendments did not appropriately address the concerns relating to the risk fracking posed to water resources, which were already scarce, as each production well needed about 15 million litres of fluid to frack.
Stefan Cramer, a retired hydro-geologist and Safcei’s science advisor, said: “Having reviewed the minister’s proposed amendments, it is clear that there is a lack of quality inputs from the highly qualified South African groundwater science community.
“The new regulations are required to give investors a clear path of the legal framework under which they can operate in the onshore environment of South Africa. They are also required to give the competing water users of South Africa a clear signal that their overriding concerns for clean and affordable drinking water are heard by government. But these ‘new’ regulations solve neither of these two competing interests, while offering no protection at all to private water facilities,“Cramer said.
In unpacking the issues around fracking in South Africa in 2017, Wits University Global Change Institute (GCI) professor Bob Scholes and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) sustainability scientist Greg Schreiner said the risk to water resources was the biggest concern to all involved.
“The greatest risk is that the fracking fluid leaks into the surface water and shallow aquifers used by people, livestock and the ecosystem, due to inadequate sealing of the upper parts of the borehole, or following a spill on the surface. These risks can be reduced, but not eliminated, by good engineering.
“Current potable water resources in the Karoo are already fully allocated and the additional water requirements for shale gas development would either need to use water from local non-potable sources, such as deep saline groundwater, or water imported from outside the region,” Scholes and Schreiner said.
Creecy said the regulations identified prohibited activities and prohibited geographic areas for the use of hydraulic fracturing technology – which included the use of potable water for hydraulic fracturing activities and the use of municipal water treatment facilities.