Fracking Article
- The basic technique of “hydraulic fracturing” has been used in conventional-style wells since the late 1940sThe chief hurdle is that unlike fracking of vertical wells, horizontal fracking requires enormous volumes of water and chemicals
- Huge ponds or tanks are also needed to store the chemically laden “flowback water” that comes back up the hole after wells have been fractured industry scientists dismiss the idea that fracking has caused polluted water wells and flammable kitchen faucets
- To maximize access to the gas, however, companies may drill a dozen or more vertical wells, closely spaced, at a single site the scientists and regulators now trying to answer this complex question have arrived a little late
- We could have used their research before fracking became a big controversy
- The cause of political conflict in New York, where the Department of Environmental Conservation recently unveiled a plan to give drilling companies access to 85 percent of the state’s portion of the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations
- Fracking would not be allowed in the New York City or Syracuse watersheds
- The department based its go-ahead on reviews of various studies and says it plans to tightly regulate any drilling work
- If fracking is taken to refer to the entire process of unconventional gas drilling from start to finish, it is already guilty of some serious infractions
- The flowback water has to be managed; up to 75 percent of what is blasted down comes back up
- These kinds of impacts can be blamed on fracking if the term refers to the whole industrial process—but not necessarily if it means just the underground water blast that fractures the rock after the drilling is done
- To show that fracking as industry denies it is the problem, you have to examine the alleged threat that is simultaneously the most publicized and yet the most uncertain-the idea that water blasts deep underground can directly contaminate drinking water, by creating unexpected pathways for gas or liquid to travel between deep shale and shallow groundwater.
- The EPA claimed that two residential drinking-water wells near two of the company's gas wells were contaminated with methane of deep, "thermogenic" origin; they also claimed that one of the wells contained chemicals sometimes used in fracking and was delivering flammable water.
- Crucially, even if the EPA is correct that Range Resources is at fault, that does not mean fracking deep in the ground is the problem.
- What is different now with horizontal drilling is that “because of the depths of the gas and the combination of fracking and directional drilling, instead of 80,000 gallons of water it is now millions of gallons per fracking operation,” with the big increase in chemicals that go along with it.
Summary & Opinion:Fracking is known as a way for people to dig wells in the ground to tap into reservoirs of natural gas. This has been done since the 1940’s, the process includes using wells, water, and chemicals just to take these gases out. They need to pump chemicals into the source in order to pressurize the rocks to break hence allowing natural gas to pour out. There are also vertical wells which need more water to work. This process is much more extensive and have been known to be controversial when it comes to more water pollution. Environmentalists have been trying to prove that the fracking industry is causing irreparable damage to both ecosystems and the people that reside near the wells. It causes several health issues for any organism that comes into contact with the water and it also causes several environmental issues. Fracking is still being researched to today; it still poses several threats to people and may still be very dangerous to everyone around it.
I would claim that I am surprised by human behavior due to the obvious damage that fracking has done, but I am more aware now that humans can be very inhumane. People forget that these problems that they are creating will eventually get back to them ten-fold. However it is just saddening that there are several innocent people and other organisms that pay for the mistake and greed of others. It is regretful to know that people are capable to turn the other way knowing that they will cause several people to suffer from disease, all to obtain money. The thing about this Earth, it that humans forget that it is not renewable and things often happen in long periods of time. Due to the ‘need’ of people for electricity and for a ‘better’ life, they doom the future generations of problems that can go away simply by stopping pollutions. We need to realize that we cannot plan for a non-existent future.
I would claim that I am surprised by human behavior due to the obvious damage that fracking has done, but I am more aware now that humans can be very inhumane. People forget that these problems that they are creating will eventually get back to them ten-fold. However it is just saddening that there are several innocent people and other organisms that pay for the mistake and greed of others. It is regretful to know that people are capable to turn the other way knowing that they will cause several people to suffer from disease, all to obtain money. The thing about this Earth, it that humans forget that it is not renewable and things often happen in long periods of time. Due to the ‘need’ of people for electricity and for a ‘better’ life, they doom the future generations of problems that can go away simply by stopping pollutions. We need to realize that we cannot plan for a non-existent future.