I wanted to share some information on another threat to our water source that is already doing damage to dwindling water sources across the United States – Fracking. This frighteningly unregulated practice is shrouded in mystery for too many. For those of you who don't feel you know enough...
What is “Fracking?”
Hydraulic fracturing, aka “fracking,” starts with a well that is drilled to a depth of 1 to 2 miles or more. The vertical well is then encased in steel and/or cement. When the vertical well reaches the deep layer of rock where natural gas or oil exists, the well curves about 90 degrees and begins drilling horizontally along that rock layer. Horizontal drilling can extend more than 1 mile from the vertical well.
After the fracking well is fully drilled and encased, fracking fluid is pumped down at extremely high pressure. The pressure is powerful enough to fracture the surrounding rock, creating fissures and cracks through which oil and gas can flow. The fluid pumped in to fracture the rock is called slickwater. It is mostly water, but it will contain a wide range of additives and chemicals (i.e. detergents, salts, acids, alcohols, lubricants and disinfectants).
In addition to the water and chemical additives, "proppants" such as sand and ceramic particles are added to prop open the fractures that form under pressure, thereby ensuring that gas and oil can continue to flow freely out of rock fractures even after pumping pressure is released.
Once the underground rock is shattered and proppants are pumped into place, trapped reservoirs of gas and oil are released and pumped back to the surface, along with millions of gallons of "flowback" liquid. The flowback liquid contains water and a number of contaminants, including radioactive material, heavy metals, hydrocarbons and other toxins. This waste water is stored on the fracking site in pits, injected into deep underground wells or disposed of off-site at a waste water treatment facility.
Five things you should know about Fracking...
- In this new era of water “scarcity,” the biggest environmental threat could be from the amount of water used, not chemical contamination. Fracking just one well uses somewhere in the region of 3 to 8 million gallons of water. Data varies on the viability of that water even after it is treated at a special water treatment plant designed to deal with eliminating heavy metals and radioactive substances. Most agree, however, that about 30% can never again be safe water for drinking.
- The companies that are employing the fracking technique are under no legal obligation to reveal the ingredients in the cocktail that is “slickwater.” Thus, when there is a spill or a leak in a well, the responding HAZMAT team has no idea what kind of detergents, salts, acids, alcohols, lubricants and disinfectants they are facing in their “clean-up” effort.
- There are unrevealed expenses to the taxpayers in states where fracking occurs. Like the fact that the truck traffic needed to deliver water to a single fracking well causes as much damage to local roads as nearly 3.5 million car trips.
- Shaking up Mother Earth two miles down is not without consequences. Many areas of the United States where earthquakes just don't happen, such as Ohio and Oklahoma, are now experiencing relatively strong seismic activity. Fracking is believed to be the cause of Oklahoma's strongest recorded quake in 2011 and more than 180 tremors in Texas.
- There are unrevealed damages to the local economy in communities near a fracking site. For example, gas fracking operations in Wyoming have fragmented key habitat for mule deer and pronghorn, which are important draws for the state’s $340 million hunting and wildlife-watching industries. The mule deer population in one area undergoing gas extraction dropped by 56 percent between 2001 and 2010.
Fracking is more expensive than
traditional drilling expeditions and comes with many hidden
consequences and costs. The money spent on just one of these
operations could fill an enormous field with solar panels.
