Groundwater environmental impact and supervise recommendation in process of shale gas development in China

Abstract

There are rich shale gas resources in China at present, which are going to be exploited and utilized in a large scale. However, of a series of environmental issues caused by the development and utilization of the resources, the influence on the groundwater environment is the most important. Shale gas development in China is in an initial stage. The new guidelines for environmental impact assessment on shale gas development are still not issued while traditional environmental impact assessment on oil and gas field development could not meet the need of environmental management for shale gas development and construction projects. In this paper, based on the current situation of shale gas development in China region, the influences of shale gas development in different stages on the groundwater environment are analyzed. The ideas and key points in assessing the influences of shale gas development on the groundwater’s environmental quality in different stages are proposed when the technical guidelines for the environmental impact assessment on shale gas development are not available. The result of the paper will provide a new idea for the Groundwater environmental impact and Supervise Recommendation in shale gas development in China.