Renewable Energy Blog

Leave our water the Frack Alone!! The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly of Controversial Fracking

Lately we've been hearing a lot of protesting going on about this thing called "fracking".

First off, what exactly is Fracking? Fracking is the process of digging vertically into the earth to reach pockets of oil and gas to use for fuel. Fracking, also called hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking, is the process of forcing a mixture of freshwater and toxic chemicals under higher pressure into a well, breaking up the shale and releasing trapped oil and gas. It's a 60 yr old process that started in the 1940's. It allows us to access otherwise inaccessible fossil fuels.

photo courtesy of ecoversity.com

  The Good:

Fracking could add tens of thousands of jobs to a dozen states or more. Since the excess shale wells are only found in certain areas, these jobs could add a substantial increase to the local economy. It would substantially decrease our dependence on foreign oil, brings jobs to towns in mostly rural areas, and natural gas is a far cleaner source than coal. In addition to job creation, land owners are getting paid a pretty penny to have these drilling companies park on their land. However, these benefits are really only immediate and temporary. The jobs and the money to lease the land will all be temporary. When the wells dry up, so will the money. Incredibly, by using hydraulic fracking, we could produce 29x the amount of energy while leaving a footprint the size of only a 2 car garage. That's pretty amazing considering the equipment that is needed to extract all that energy!

photo courtesy of theenergycollective.com

The Bad:

It takes a lot of water to make this process work. We're talking about 5 million gallons per well. (In 2011, there were an estimated 27,000 wells being fracked!) Most of that water, about 80%, can't be released back into the system for consumption. There are chemicals, albeit only a very small fraction, that contaminate the water not making it safe to drink.

You've seen the pictures of the water coming out of the faucets and someone lighting it on fire. They claim that's due to the fracking in the area, leaking methane into the ground water that then becomes a part of our drinking water. In fact, according to theblaze.com, ".....Reason.com science editor Ronald Bailey tackled that shocking claim and a few others, having just published “The Top Five Lies About Fracking.”" He said, You can make anything sound scary if the people aren’t familiar with it. The activists have decided to target natural gas because it’s so cheap that it’s actually competing [with] the preferred energy sources they want: wind and solar.” Duke University just finished a study of over 200 wells and found no contamination whatsoever.
(If common sense has any place here, it would make sense that there is more methane naturally being released into the ground water in areas closest to the excess gas trapped beneath the Earth, not necessarily from the fracking taking place.)

The Ugly:

This process allows more methane gas trapped beneath the surface to be released into our atmosphere. Fracking allows us to use what was until recently an unreachable fossil fuel reservoir, which leads to the release of more methane into the atmosphere, adversely increasing the global warming effect. In addition to the natural gas itself, both the methane gas that is a byproduct of extraction and the carbon dioxide that is created through burning that methane are greenhouse gases and contribute to global warming. The amount of land being used by the fracking industry only increases our environmental footprint on the Earth. Roads are needed to get there, the wells are dug, the water and sand needs to go somewhere so often they pump it into holding tanks and send it over 8,000 ft below. These are not only filled with water and sand, but when you combine millions of gallons of chemical laced water, there is potential for spillage and potential for health safety concerns in our communities. Although it has yet to be proven to be a hazard, studies are continuously being crafted to either prove or disprove the risks. Below is a map depicting the states that are mostly affected by the industry.

photo courtesy of desmogblog.com

My Conclusion:

The jury is still out on whether Fracking is actually harmful to our health. Finally the EPA is finally taking a serious assessment of the dangers fracking imposes. The possibility of radioactive waste-water being dumped back into our reservoirs, the increased smog that these machines and additional trucks are polluting into our air and the possible radon that is being released with the methane and other gases are creating a seriously potential hazard. Not to mention the increase in our global warming plight that is hard enough to get under control. With more and more cities banning and protesting the fracking industry, we may be able to combat this predicament we find ourselves in from increasing an already speedy global warming process. As environmentalists, we need to do everything we can to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and quickly. We're burning up our Earth and all she supplies us with at the cost of our health and our future.

photo courtesy of isustainableearth.com