Fracking Research Paper

There can be a lot of health and environmental risk that come with fracking in Texas, such

Fracking is a shorter form of Hydraulic Fracturing which is the extraction process of both natural gas and oil. The process involves drilling deep into the Earth’s surface. Fractures are then created by “pumping large quantities of fluids at high pressure down a welfare and into the target rock formation” (EPA, 2016). After making these openings for the gas or oil to come up (known as “flowback”) the materials can be stored. The reason the fracking process occurs is because “more usual methods of extraction may not be able to fully reach the deposits of shale gas and oil” (2015).

Fracking consumes a lot of water with many chemicals and can’t be used again for purposes other than fracking, reducing the water supply. Companies originally extracted gas in a vertical position, but many are switching to lateral fracking; the latter of which consumes a significantly more amount of water

Hydraulic fracking in the United States is a current environmental hazard that has to be addressed by the American people and by the federal government. Fracking in America has opened up millions of acres of lands that were once not economically viable to produce oil and gas. While the Bureau of land Management has paved the way for hydraulic fracturing on public lands, there is a need for retaliation. Fracking is a dirty method of extracting gases and oils at the price of numerous environmental, safety, and health hazards. The environment is not a means of income when rather it is the capital for future generations.

This article tries to advocate fracking by giving insights on how safe fracking is for the environment. To begin with, a brief description is given as to how fracking is done to extract natural gas. Views of Manhattan Institute senior fellow Robert Bryce which compare the CO2 emissions in 2002 and 2012 show a drop of 8% due to surge in shale gas production, which reduced coal usage. Water usage and other resources like land and habitat protection for wild animals has been presented in the article to highlight how fracking is much environment friendly compared to other energy sources, even wind and solar.

Yet, according to Environmental Heath Perspectives author David Holzman (2011), “In a study of 68 private drinking water wells in northeastern Pennsylvania and New York, methane contamination rose sharply with proximity to natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) sites” (p. 1). The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) suspects that the cause of this contamination is the result of leaks caused by poor gas well construction at the fracking sites. Not only is the water surrounding the hydraulic fracturing sites getting contaminated but it is also getting depleted at a fast rate. According to Scientific American journalist Bobby Magill (2015), “Oil and natural gas fracking, on average, uses more than 28 times the water it did 15 years ago, … putting farming and drinking sources at risk in arid states, especially during drought” (p. 1). One of these states is California which is undergoing one the worst droughts in its history. Despite this fact, California is still extracting natural gas using hydraulic fracturing. There are also other types of environmental problems that threaten America’s landscapes which are caused by hydraulic

On the other hand, further research has shown that shale oils and gases develop risks that interfere with the quality of air especially from the exhausts of the trucks involved in the transportation (Wilber, 2012). This overall process may result in the pollution of water or rather the contamination of both the ground and the surface sources. This means that the releases of chemicals among other underground spillages often cause unwanted mixtures between the clean sources and the migrating gases and

Scientists are worried that the chemicals used in fracturing may pose a threat either underground or when waste fluids are handled they are sometimes spilled on the surface which can cause site contamination or find its way back to water clean water. The natural gas industry defends hydraulic fracturing, or fracking as safe and efficient. Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, a pro-industry non-profit organization, claims fracking has been “a widely deployed as safe extraction technique,” dating back to 1949. What Mr. Pyle fails to explain is that until recently energy companies had used low-pressure methods to extract natural gas from fields closer to the surface than the current high-pressure technology that extracts more gas, by digging to deeper levels and it also uses significantly more water, sand and chemicals. There have been serious environmental impacts associated with the process which has raised public concern. At this point, a causal relationship has not been established but increasing attention opens the possibility that further government action could be imminent regarding the practice. According to Baumgartner and

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking” is a cost-efficient and innovative process to obtain natural gases from underground. Greengarbageblog.org describes

It is then mixed with between 1 and 8 million gallons of water and sand. This is called Fracking fluid. In the US right now there are around 500,000 active gas wells. A well can be fracked around 18 times, so altogether to run all the wells in the US, it would take 360 billion gallons of chemicals along with 72 trillion gallons of water. Of the fracking fluid used 50 -70% of it is left in the ground and the fluid is non bio degradable causing contamination to nearby groundwater and evaporating which releases volatile organic compounds into the atmosphere contaminating the air. One of the biggest arguments that people who are for fracking say that it is better as there are less Co2 emissions. Although this is true, during the fracturing process methane gas is used and if they don’t cap the wells properly, which although quite rare can happen, the methane gas can be released into the air causing multiple environmental hazards. So although they can argue that their Co2 emissions are lower, they use methane a gas that is much worse for the environment. The methane gas is also contaminating the water near the wells with water sources near the wells reportedly having 17 times higher methane concentrations than water sources not near the wells.

There has been a recent push to develop unconventional ways to obtain fossil fuels, particularly oil and gas in the United States and as well as over seas. Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” has come into play recently and there is much controversy over the developed methods of obtaining oil and gas. Supporters for fracking have claimed that the new technology will spark an economic growth with jobs, as well as an alternative energy source, but there are also risks that go into fracking, which citizens of the surrounding areas are opposed because fracking can have long lasting and hazardous effects not only on the environment, but on the people in the surrounding community.

Their local ecosystem is being destroyed in many ways. One controversial issue that fracking is responsible for is its immense use of water. For example, for every one barrel of oil that is recovered from fracking it leaves behind ten barrels of waste water (Stockton 3). After doing research, environmentalists have been concerned about potentially carcinogenic chemical’s ability to pollute groundwater (“What is Fracking…” 6). For example, rivers nearby become contaminated so animals can no longer drink out of it and you can’t swim in them. Another impact that fracking has on the local ecosystem is how it has been proven to cause earthquakes. In states specifically like Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas we see this happening. Faults in these areas have started to move for the first time in millions of years (Loki 6). Lawsuits against energy companies have even taken place. For example, Oklahoma experienced 5,838 earthquakes in 2015 compared to 167 earthquakes in 2009 as a consequence of fracking (“Lawsuit Seeks Damages…” 2). Undoubtedly, the environment is slowly being destroyed by fracking at our own

Hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking) is a highly controversial process in which gas and oil are extracted from rock formations thousands of feet underground. While there are definite benefits of using fracking, there are also environmental issues that we need to be aware of. There are green alternatives to hydraulic fracturing, and further research needs to be done to identify the possible long term environmental and health concerns that are associated with fracking before our government continues to use it as a source of obtaining oil and gas.

There is a lot of controversy over the new practice of getting to fresh natural gas stored in the shale under our feet. The process has been named hydraulic fracturing, and as you can imagine, it involves water (hydro) and breaking stuff (fracking). The results that many people have been experiencing close to where this technique is used seem to be having

Fracking is also referred as hydraulic fracturing in which rock is fractured by a pressurized liquid to further create cracks and openings underground to extract more free flowing components such as natural gas, petroleum, and brine. Millions of ‘frac’ jobs have been performed on oil and gas wells worldwide to further extract more shale gas, tight gas, tight oil and coral seam gas. This highly controversial issue of greed and depletion of deeply bounded fossil fuels is extremely important. The argumentative basis of this matter is between those whom benefit and have more readily available accessible hydrocarbons and the people who are aware of the potential hazardous environmental effects. Hydraulic fracturing greatly threatens the risk of ground and surface water contamination, air pollution, noise pollution, and the consequential triggering of earth quakes and hazardous long-term effects that are unknown. This is highly controversial considering the industry that is already in power of fossil fuel extraction is highly powerful and ran by both government powers and mass corporate powers with much control on those who regulate. I am on the opposing side of the fossil greedy powerful organizations who push for fracking and believe that there are surely alternative solutions. I am personally interested in the issue of fracking because I know how important and vital clean ground and surface water are for human survival and also because I am terrified of the technology mankind has came to power over that in which threatens and potentially could trigger disasters that we have no control over such as earthquakes and sinking of the land. There are many issues amongst my major that I cold have focused on but I believe in this current day the largest problems surround the ever so greedy and extreme measures mankind will take to have power over natural resources,