“What is Hydraulic Fracturing?” Pro Publica. Web. 26 Oct. 2013.
Hydraulic fracturing is the process of drilling a mixture of water, sand, and millions of chemicals about 10,000 feet into the ground at a high pressure to create fissures in the surrounding rock to release the gas trapped in there. Tanker trucks deliver the water to the drilling site, and pumper trucks pump the water, sand, and chemicals into the gas well, and the sand keeps the fissures in the rock open so that the gas can escape from the well. Pits store the recovered water (which is then taken to a treatment plant), and the natural gas is on its way to the market.
“Water: Safe Drinking Water Act.” United States Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.
In order to protect the public health, Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974. It allows the US Environmental Protection Agency to set certain standards that determines whether the water intended is too contaminated by certain pollutants for people to drink or not. Originally, the Safe Drinking Water Act was proposed as a means to provide safe tap water, but has now improved to not only provide funds to improve the cleanliness of drinking water but to also offer water protection, operator training and helpful water regulation information to the public.
Carus, Felicity. “Dangerous Levels of Radioactivity Found at Fracking Waste Site in Pennsylvania.” The Guardian. 02 October 2013. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.
From January to June 2013, there were 4,197 gas wells in Pennsylvania that showed 3.5m barrels of fluid waste and 10.7m barrels of "produced" fluid. The waste is supposed to be disposed of within Pennsylvania, but some of it is also went to other states, such as Ohio and New York. In July, a treatment company in New York state pleaded guilty to falsifying more than 3,000 water tests. Earlier this year, Vengosh published yet another report that found higher methane, ethane and propane concentrations in drinking water within a kilometre of shale gas drilling at 141 sites where drinking water samples were taken.
Driessen, Paul. “Fracking Brings Employment and Economic Revival.” Human Events. 12 August 2013. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.
Fracking has revitalized the economy in the United States. It has created 1.7 million direct and indirect jobs and its likely to keep rising over the next couple of years. It could contribute over trillions of dollar in the cumulative capital expenditures by 2035. This is why Fracking can be "justified". It is believed that the activists protesting against Fracking are only against it because "Russia is putting big money into U.S. activist groups to stop us from threatening OPEC’s market share."
Figueroa, Alyssa. “Five Strange, Frightening Effects of Fracking.” Salon. 22 October 2012. Web. 26 Oct. 2013.
The first thing that pops up into one’s mind when thinking of the word “Hydraulic Fracturing” is most likely flammable tap water or health risks, but there’s more to fracking than just those negative factors. There are SCARY, FRIGHTENING factors as well: Improperly abandoned gas wells contribute by shooting methane over 30 feet up into the air; New York is a leading source of a variety of agricultural products. About 25% of this land produces food and this land may be shared by contaminated soil and air pollution.
http://www.dangersoffracking.com/
- Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside.
- There are more than 500,000 active natural gas wells in the US.
- It takes 1-8 million gallons of water to complete each fracturing job.
- The water brought in is mixed with sand and chemicals to create fracking fluid. Approximately 40,000 gallons of chemicals are used per fracturing.
- During this process, methane gas and toxic chemicals leach out from the system and contaminate nearby groundwater.
- Methane concentrations are 17x higher in drinking-water wells near fracturing sites than in normal wells.
- There have been over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination next to areas of gas drilling as well as cases of sensory, respiratory, and neurological damage due to ingested contaminated water.
Levy, Alyson Rose. “4 Horrifying Dangers of Fracking.” Alternet. 30 November 2012. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.
There are many risks by employing Hydraulic Fracturing. Alison Rose Levy explains in detail, four of the many risks: (a) Radioactive wastewater will be too late to detect in public water and people drinking from that contaminated source of water will result in "anemia, cataracts, cancer, and increased mortality." With radon exposure, the second leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S., the radon present in the shale will readily mix with the gas and travel with it via pipeline into the homes and businesses of its end users. A higher incidence of asthma, cancer, heart disease and the effects of endocrine disruption on developing fetuses and children, due to contaminant exposure, only become evident over time. To prevent disease rather than incur its high human and economic costs, it’s best to intervene prior to exposure, rather than act in hindsight.
Petracca, Lauren. “Meet the Pennsylvania residents who say their lives have been changed by gas drilling.” Catskill Mountainkeeper. 14 February 2013. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.
A family of eight that just moved to Franklin Forks, Pennsylvania experienced the negatives of fracking just after a year of moving in to their home.Their water was tested positive for high, unsafe levels of arsenic, barium, methane and other dangerous chemicals. They couldn't drink, cook, shower, or do anything with their tap water in that state. They couldn't even turn on their gas stove because their house was engulfed in methane. However, because of the large sums of money pouring into the town, the rest of the town were in favor of this harmful process.
Rumpler, John. “Fracking by the Numbers: New Report First to Quantify Damage Done by Gas Drilling.” Environment America. 03 October 2013. Web. 22 Nov. 2013.
A new report (The Environment America Research & Policy Center report, "Fracking by the Numbers,") observed that the entire fracking process in the year 2012, could drown Washington D.C. with its toxic wastewater. Residents living near the site have been showing signs of headache and nausea linked to the fracking.
• 280 billion gallons of toxic wastewater generated in 2012,
• 450,000 tons of air pollution produced in one year,
• 250 billion gallons of fresh water used since 2005,
• 360,000 acres of land degraded since 2005,
• 100 million metric tons of global warming pollution since 2005.
About I million of the public are urging President Obama to keep the more sensitive lands off limits to Fracking.