52 BULLETIN 102, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
In my own State of West Virginia only eight years ago not less than 
500,000,000 cubic feet of this precious gas was daily escaping into the air from 
two counties alone, practically all of which was easily preventable by a 
moderate expenditure for additional casing. 1 
Of all the pieces of extravagance of which the American people have been 
guilty, perhaps their reckless and wasteful use of natural gas is the most 
striking — not the most important — but the most striking. This product, 
severely limited in quantity, which can last only a few years at most, has 
been handled by us as if it were illimitable. 2 
In reference to natural gas, the great and pressing necessity is to stop its 
appalling waste by enacting and enforcing proper legislation. This ideal fuel 
should be used with the severest economy in order to prolong its life, which 
will be brief at best. 3 
Had the pioneer far-reaching waste eliminating recommendations 
of Dr. Edward Orton, State geologist of Ohio, and Dr. I. C. White, 
State geologist of West Virginia, been heeded, most of the acute 
natural gas service problems of to-day would not exist. 
SPECIFIC FORMS OF WASTE. 
The various forms of waste may be grouped under drilling, well 
operation, transmission, and utilization operations. 
DRILLING WASTES. 
1. Not closing wells 'promptly. — Much gas is wasted on account of 
delay in closing wells, caused primarily by poor judgment and failure 
to supply material promptly. In many cases the rock pressure over 
quite a district has been materially lowered by the delay in. closing 
promptly a single large well in that section. 
2. Improper casing. — There is much underground waste by im- 
proper casing methods which allow gas or water to migrate from 
their original strata into other strata. This is an especially impor- 
tant feature in the West Virginia fields, where in many instances 
several gas-bearing formations are superimposed with intervening 
barren formations. 
3. Waste of gas to air. — -As a result of improper casing methods 
gas frequently works up around the packer or into the casing above 
the packer and is wasted in the air. 
4. Gas waste in tv ell-drilling boilers. — Most gas burning, appli- 
ances used in well-drilling boilers are crude and inefficient, and the 
gas is handled as if it had practically no value and were of little 
use to other people. 
5. Waste of gas - in torches. — A large number of open flame (flam- 
beaux) torches are still in use. Not only is this an inefficient and 
1 1. C. White, State geologist of West Virginia. Address at conference on conservation 
of natural resources, May 13, 1908. 
2 C. R. Van Hise’s The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States, p. 60. 
3 Idem, 360, 
