Drilling a well displaces rock from the well bore. This rock is reduced to a mixture of coarse chips and fine particles and shavings called drill cuttings, or just cuttings. If fluid, rather than air, has been used to drill a well, these cuttings are wet.
If the well has been drilled using air, they will be drier, though they may contain some formation water. Cuttings from the Marcellus formationitself will represent as much as half or more of the total cuttings, as the lateral well legs within the Marcellus are in some cases longer than the vertical well length to the Marcellus. This means that the drill cuttings will contain the same minerals and trace elements that are found in the Marcellus Shale. The NY DEC estimates that a well drilled to a depth of 7,000 feet with a single horizontal lateral of 4,000 feet will produce cuttings that total 217 cubic yards,
or 5,859 ft3 – enough to fill two school busses and a standard dorm room.This estimate is for each well. A six-well pad would generate about 1,302 yds3. (This is probably a maximum estimate, since another estimate gives a lower volume of
cuttings for similarly proportioned wells.