Dalton Utilities CEO Don Cope said the water company's potential use of hydraulic fracturing is a "different animal" from a similar technique the Environmental Protection Agency is investigating.
In March, EPA announced it was conducting a study into how hydraulic fracturing could contaminate groundwater supplies. Dalton Utilities has tried the technique once and is looking at increased usage under a complex water storage plan being explored by the water company, according to Mr. Cope.
The EPA's $1.9 million study is investigating the impact of the technique, also called hydrofracking and primarily associated with gas and oil drilling, on groundwater.
In such applications, water, sand and chemicals called "fracturing fluids" are injected into the ground under great pressure. The pressure widens cracks and fractures in the underlying rock, making extraction of fossil fuels easier and more efficient.
WHAT IS HYDRAULIC FRACTURING?In hydraulic fracturing, also called hydrofracking, water or chemicals called "fracturing fluids" are injected into the ground under great pressure. The pressure widens the cracks and fractures in the underlying rock to make extraction of fossil fuels or water easier and more efficient.
Mr. Cope said Dalton Utilities has not and would not use any of the fracturing chemicals and wasn't going nearly as deep as the oil companies do. He said the utility's crews would use the treated water only to add pressure and widen cracks and add capacity for water withdrawals.
The oil companies' hydrofracking is "a million times (deeper and more water intensive) than what we're talking about," Mr. Cope said. "It's a different animal."
He said hydrofracking was only a tiny part of the utility's plans for aquifer storage, which would pump treated water into expanded underground reservoirs for storage. Mr. Cope has championed the method and discussed hydrofracking at regional water planning meetings over the last year.
But in the utility's first try at hydrofracking, the results didn't yield enough additional water to be worthwhile, he said.
"We know that the underlying geology will work, you just have to find the right place to drill," Mr. Cope said.
State geologist Jim Kennedy also is confident the system could be an option.
"I'm sure that there are rock formations in Northwest Georgia where it would work," he said.
Dr. Kennedy said using chemicals wouldn't make sense in Dalton's case and, without the fluids, the main concern would be the ground standing up to additional pressure. Too much pressure could cause the injected water to squirt right back out of the ground in other locations, he said.
Careful monitoring should make it possible to prevent such blowback, he said.
"The people that do that are very well trained at it," he said.
Joe Cook, executive director of the Coosa River Basin Initiative, an advocacy group trying to protect the region's water supply, said he is "very leery" of Mr. Cope's idea.
While not as familiar with hydraulic fracturing, he said the aquifer storage system has had mixed results. In some places, the system had been a viable source of water, but in others the high oxygen content of treated water has reacted with minerals underground to contaminate groundwater, he said.
"What you need to determine is if it's safe to do that," Mr. Cook said. "We should only pursue it if we can be assured it won't mess up our groundwater."