Fracking Effects

Hydraulic fracturing is also known as “fracking” is a technique which involves drilling down, then horizontally as far as 10,000 feet below the surface to release natural gasses stored in the sedimentary rock known as Shale. The channel is then encased with concrete or occasionally steel to allow millions of gallons of water to be injected into the wellbore. Most water used in fracking comes from surface water sources such as rivers, lakes, or other accessible bodies of water nearby. Not only is there water being funneled into the wellbore, but also a mixture of sand and other chemicals. When the high-pressure mixture is injected underground it fractures the Shale around the wellbore and creates fissures. The fissures are then held open with

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the process of extracting natural gas from shale rock layers deep within the earth.The dangers of fracking are the chemicals that go into fracking and how much water is used and contamination of city water. Some dangers of fracking are water usage. They use 2 to 5 million gallons of water. Not all of the chemicals are recovered from the ground. We only know of 8 out of 600 chemicals. To many chemicals are used and some a harmful. Fracking water usage is too high for instance one well can use 144,000,000million gallons of water. 50%-70% of the fracking fluid is left in the ground and isn’t biodegradable. The waste fluid that is outside in the sunlight evaporates and releases volatile organic compounds(Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary room temperature. Their high vapor pressure results from a low boiling point, which causes large numbers of molecules to evaporate or sublimate from the liquid or solid form of the compound and enter the surrounding air.) Due to the VOCs acid rain, ground level ozone and contaminated air. Ground level ozone is bad, but ozone up high in the atmosphere protects the earth from the Sun’s harmful rays.

There are many positive arguments that support the concept of Fracking. Fracking helps out the economy and our energy in many ways. Today, natural gas and oil is needed all over the globe because it makes up most of our energy consumption. (US Dept. of Energy) This is why many support Fracking. Fracking is also needed today because it seems to be the most profitable and attractive way to obtain oil and natural gas. Many places around the globe today are being exhausted of natural gas and oil reserves, which urges the push for fracking. Fracking also has many positive economic effects. The main thing fracking does is create jobs, which greatly strengthens the economy. In addition, fracking has recently been shown to provide jobs for millions of people. A recent report done by Tamara Thompson showed that Fracking has accounted for 385 billion dollars in economic activity in the United States. Fracking is also very profitable. Extracting natural gas and oil today is very expensive, but because of fracking, there is an alternative form to recover natural gas resources that

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.

Hydraulic fracking isn 't all good though, there are many controversial things about it. First off, water contamination is a hazard. There are many ways that the water supply could be contaminated by fracking. One way is by groundwater entering through cracks that fracking has made. The water solution that 's pumped into the ground is a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals. Water and sand make up 98% of the mixture, while the remaining 2% is chemicals. Although fracking companies have never realised the chemicals used, scientists studying wastewater have found many harmful additives. A few of these are benzene, toluene, and many acids, all of which pose huge threats to humans. For each fracking well, more than 8 million liters of

“Fracking” isn’t a word that most people are familiar with unless they are well informed or active in local government or natural gas extraction. “Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves extracting natural gas from shale formations underground” (Collier, Galatas, Harrelson-Stephens, 2008). During the process known as fracking, millions of gallons of water are shot underground into shale formations to help bring the natural gas trapped inside the formations to be released so that it can surface and become available for extraction. This is the technique that is used for traditional fracking methods. Although fracking increases the states natural gas production, it also carries some negative side effects that are affecting the state and its people.

Fracking is a highly controversial practice that utilizes the injection of water, chemicals and abrasives to extract relatively inaccessible pockets of natural resources. Although fracking has the potential to benefit the domestic economy, the practice of hydraulic fracturing, if left unregulated and mismanaged poses significant risks to the environment, the ecosystem and safety.

The most dangerous consequence of fracking is that hundreds of chemicals are blasted into the Earth’s crust, which creates cracks in the bedrock. Many times, these cracks lead to an aquifer, in which case, all of the water in the aquifer becomes contaminated with these chemicals (Jackson, 2014). Additionally, when the natural gas is being pumped out of the wells, methane is released into the atmosphere. A study conducted by NOAA found that approximately 4% of the methane is being released into the atmosphere. This same study found that methane pollution increases climate changes because it traps heat in the atmosphere 25 times more than carbon dioxide (Hoffman, 2016). Furthermore, fracking waste wells are the primary cause of the increase of earthquakes in the Central U.S. This is because these wells operate for a longer period of time, which means that they inject more “solid ‘cake’” into the Earth than the actual fracking process (USGS, n.d. and StateImpact, 2017). Finally, recent studies have found that people who live near a fracking site are at higher risk to develop respiratory problems, which is due to the increased levels of pollutants. These pollutants are not only affecting the people who live in close proximity to these sites, but to the workers, as well. The most common type of respiratory problem reported was lung

Fracking is a cause of water contamination in parts of the United States that have activity in

Fracking should be banned because it damages our environment by causing earthquakes, thriving climate change and increasing radon gas. An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.6 resulted from a fracking in 2014, British Columbia. A group

Although the process of Fracking seems reasonable because it is something we use in our daily lives for cooking food, heating homes, and amongst other things, the question remains whether it is an actual positive or negative to not only us (not even a question) but to the environment? When looking at the pro side one main reason would be the additional access to gas and oil fracking would give us since “many scientists believe we only had a few years left to use fossil fuels before they ran out” (2015). The second positive effect for us would be the lowering of taxes. With more accessibility to gas and oil it wouldn't be such a demand allowing gas for cooking to lower as well as petroleum for cars. Lastly, it can create a

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.

That is more people who live in New York City and in Michigan. Drilling and extraction of natural gas are known to be seriously toxic to humans and animal. A few of the many chemicals are hydrochloric acid, benzene and formaldehyde. Which all have a serious effect for human health and wildlife. Fracking can cause birth defects, cancer, bloody noses, asthma, diarrhea, dizziness, migraines, nerve pain, and skin rashes. Fracking causes earthquakes more and more frequent and the cause is almost certainly fracking and the disposal of wastewater. The earthquakes caused by fracking have not caused much damage yet, but with a call for more drilling. Seismologists are learning more about faults no one knew existed. Fracking has contaminated lots of peoples water some people have complained to be able to light their water on fire because of large amount of methane gas. It has added to the problem of are air

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.

The benefits of hydraulic fracking are: carbon dioxide emission has gone down and natural gas could replace coal as the main source of energy. This could help the environment by lowering the greenhouse gases that impact climate change. Another benefit is the fact that these companies are using natural gas from the United States and do not have to rely on foreign countries for energy sources, which provides jobs for people in Texas. The fracking industry has brought many jobs to the state of Texas, which is good for the people as well as the economy. Although the benefits may sound good, there are many consequences that are seen as worse than any benefit. Hydraulic fracking can cause many toxic