A reclamation recipe: Composting answers reclamation worries

A much simplified recipe for successful wellsite remediation, an alternative to landfill cuttings, is described. The process is co-composting, and the recipe consists of combining oil and gas wellbore cuttings with wood waste, spread it out thinly, allowing the resulting mixture to stand for a period of two years, and adding seed. The result is a stabilized, non-toxic soil with a lush green carpet of grass, the product of combining two waste material streams into a valuable product that is also environmentally benign. Co-composting is essentially a biodegradation process where the work is done by indigenous microorganisms in the wood waste. Proponents of this process claim that the forestry industry is only too happy to provide the needed raw material as stored piles of wood waste are a fire hazard and have no market value. The process was pioneered by Newpark Environmental Services. Since 1996 they have successfully reclaimed some 500 drilling sites in Alberta and British Columbia, combining an estimated 400,000 cu. m of wood waste and wellbore cuttings to provide nutrient-rich topsoil, frequently in heavily-forested areas. Although faced initially with skepticism, the Newpark system now appears to have won respectability and is about to become part of the mainstream in that bioremediation is being added to the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board's 'Guide 50', the industry's principal guide to site remediation. Part of the reason for the acceptance of bioremediation as an acceptable method for site remediation is a change of heart at the EUB itself; prior to 1996 the EUB was quite fond of 'land-farming', a process which not only requires a period of five to ten years, but is also less than effective, particularly in areas that received a lot of rain and snow. photos