Fracking Affects The Environment

While solving the issue of having to rely on others for oil and gas, fracking is also creating the problem of harming the environment and creating issues for residents living near the sites and the leasers themselves.

While this process is happening the chemicals and toxins tend to reach out towards the nearby groundwater and eventually contaminate oceans and drinking water wells. By this time both animals and humans are being affected. It can get into our systems and make us sick. These toxins reach out to both land animals and sea animals. If these animals get enough toxins in their systems, they will eventually get sick and die off. Fracking affects both the land around, humans, animals and plants. While on the subject of potentially hurting human life, there have been known videos of people holding a lighter next to their tap water and it setting on fire due to the methane gas

While fracking has provided a cleaner fuel, there are many negative effects to the environment, the beef industry, human health and little positive effects. Some of these effects include; ground water being polluted with harmful chemicals, this polluted water can cause extreme sickness in humans. Fracking disrupts the habitats of animals and they have to leave the area to find clean water and a better food supply. Also it has been taking an effect on the beef industry in how farmers raise and sell their cattle. Fracking can have negative long term effects on the people living in the local area and make that area inhabitable.

Hydraulic Fracturing, also known as fracking, is directly linked to having effects on the environment and the overall public health. The debate on whether or not fracking is too harsh on the environment has been going on ever since the United States has increased its use of this process to obtain more natural resources. Hydraulic fracturing is also directly correlated to having effects on drinking water. The process of fracking includes the injection of water containing other chemicals into the ground to extract natural resources that would otherwise be more difficult to obtain (Hydraulic Fracturing Overview, 2012). Although the process of fracking has resulted in an increase of natural resources, such as natural gas and oil, public health and environmental concerns have arisen. This topic has been the discussion of many people and whether or not there should be some form of government regulation in place, as it is nonexistent to this day. With that said, hydraulic fracturing in the United States has more negative effects on drinking water and the environment over time and should not be used as a means to obtain natural resources.

Hydraulic fracking has been known to release ‘more than 650 chemicals”( source 3), because of this people who are living ‘near these wells fear their health may be harmed” ( source 3). Even though hydraulic fracking has not caused any known health problems there is still the threat that could come soon when more and more well build up. This could also harm the wildlife and could cause their habitat to be destroyed.

What is fracking? Fracking, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is to force water, sand, and chemical fluids into a crack or seam in a subterranean level of rock so that natural gas or oil may be harvested as it escapes through the crack. Fracking causes many harmful effects to the environment, but it does help the economy in a tremendous way. Fracking can cause loads of chemicals out into the air and into the water supply and it can also cause small earthquakes and tremors. It is useful for the economy because there is a lot of money to be made in this new industry and it provides an extreme amount of jobs and opportunity for the public. Although it is very helpful, fracking is more wrong because the damage done to our planet is much more important and concerning compared to the notion of quick cash.

Trash, pollution, more trash, more pollution what is going on!!!!! Enviromental impacts are huge especially when it comes to waste of supplies. Water bottles and fracking are only a few of the enviromental impacts but they are one of the more major types of enviromental impacts. Affects that the water bottle can cause are polluting the earth when you throw a water bottle away it takes over hundreds of years to break down not to mention it looks really bad. If people would recycle water bottles it would help because they could be used for something instead of being thrown out. Also when water bottles are made it takes oil that fills up the water bottle to make it. Fracking is one that really affects our enviroment because it causes polution

Another reason I think fracking is a bad thing is because fracking can harm the environment. Fracking can do many different things to the environment the main thing it does to the environment is it cracks the ground, which can cause a major catastrophe on a major scale, like earthquakes. You do not want an earthquake to happen do you?

“Fracking chemicals damage fertility and cause birth defects. A recent study suggests of the 750 plus chemicals used in fracking, over 130 are endocrine disruptors. Once in the body, these toxins have been linked to fertility issues in men and women as well as birth defects” (Group). These chemicals can be put into the water supply, Without any knowingness of it if not frequently checked.

This paper explores the hydraulic fracturing process, exactly what it is, what the fracturing process does to the earth and the surrounding environment in addition, to the consequences. Hydraulic fracturing is fracturing of rock by pressurization. This process by which oil and natural gas can be forced from the earth. The hydraulic fracturing process takes millions of gallons of clean water, sand, chemicals and pumps them underground at high pressure to break apart rock to release gas and or oil. My research has led me to the discovery that there are as many proponents for fracking as that are those that oppose the process. One thing

Frack sites can break down and cause a bundle of problems. Communities with fracking have seen decline in property values, increases in crime, and losses in local tourism. When a community loses tourism and gains an increase in crime it may not be an area where a new company would want to settle, worsening the economy. Fracking is said to have caused earthquakes when a pipe ruptures. If a pipe ruptures it damage a fault line pushing one tectonic plate closer toward the earthquake point. If a storage tank for fracking breaks it may leak out into crops and streams and poison our ecosystem. If the fracking fluid does as much as decimates on of the species in the ecosystem, then it will put the whole ecosystem out of whack causing numerous problems.

Fracking negatively impacts environmental health the most. By using the process of fracking to reach natural gas, fracking induced earthquakes have occurred in states such as Oklahoma. Also, scarred earth and rock are left behind from fracking companies and wells, damaging the earth. Finally, water pollution and waste is a common result of fracking. One example of water pollution, is methane gas, which is commonly used in fracking, has been found in tap water in areas near fracking wells. Moreover, chemical traces are left in underground water sources.

How would you feel if you were told that you had cancer or another chronic illness...from the water you are drinking? Sadly, this actually can, and does, happen to people because of a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Though many believe fracking is the key to an independent energy source, it causes many problems such as: global warming, water contamination, bad air quality, and even earthquakes. Fracking should not be continuing and growing in usage in the United States.

Fracking has killed farmer’s livestock and it leaked into the farmers plants. When the oil drillers drill sometimes it leaches out of the ground and gets in the plants. Chemicals spilling from fracking could contaminate the plants.Fracking has also caused a lot of earthquakes. In conclusion fracking is bad for the environment because it has killed farmers, livestock and ruined the plants.

Particularly, there is a concern about produced water (i.e., water that reaches the surface after fracking) because it contains various dangerous chemicals (e.g., radium) and it can mix with the ground water and surface water (US EPA, 2016). Furthermore, the air of fracking areas contains compounds that are carcinogens, and that cause respiratory and neurological problems (Carpenter, 2015). Fracking also affects certain people more; for example in Southern Texas, areas with high numbers of colored people and high levels of poverty were more likely to have disposal wells from fracking (Johnston, Werder, & Sebastian, 2016). Additionally, the laws are not on the people’s side; many laws have been passed in order to protect the oil and gas industry (Twomey et al., 2016). Ideally, the best solution would be to stop fracking all together in order to prevent any more detrimental events from happening. However, a more approachable solution would involve moving towards renewable energy. Renewal energy is a better alternative, because it will not damage the environment to such a great extent as fossil fuels (Cohen, 2015). Also, renewable energy is long-term energy solution in comparison to natural gas (Mathews & Tan, 2014). Eventually, natural gas will be depleted if it is utilized as a main energy source (Cohen,