Hydraulic Fracking: A Literature Review

In this research paper we will cuss and discuss the effects that “Hydraulic Fracturing” has had on the environment, the economy, and human life in general. This will be essential in rationalizing the overall effects it has had on the planet Earth, and those therein. This paper will also examine how “Fracking” works, and it will bring to light the good, the bad, and the ugly. The truth about fracking is that it is quickly becoming a nightmare for both the environment and humans alike, because there aren’t enough state or federal policies to help monitor and reduce the pollution it creates.

The mismanagement of the practice has the potential to create environmental damage such as water contamination, radioactive spills, and increased seismic activity that could cost thousands in dollars in damage. Furthermore, the unintended consequences of fracking can have detrimental effects on the environmental. The potential for water contamination can pose both an immediate and long term risk to environmental stability, including landscape distortion, inhabitability and ecological displacement. This contamination of drinking water can also be detrimental to the human environment, limiting the amount of safe water available for both the residential and commercial human environment. With the increase of fracking, the level of disapproval for the practice has only mounted. Concerns including overconsumption of

Introduction: In the kind of world we live in today, we are in dire need of oil. Our cars need oil, our buses need it, our planes and machines. Oil and gas production are very important in order for the many tasks we do day to day and we have become dependent on it. Fracking is a process that uses high pressure water and other chemicals to gather oil under the ground. Although fracking is a fantastic way to gather oil, there have been several problems that have been occurring. In Texas many jobs and drilling locations are appearing because of the high demand for oil. Fracking is a very good way to gather natural gas however, it is causing a lot of problems for society and the environment in Texas.

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.

Due to the toxic chemicals in the water based mixture, the water can no longer be recycled, depleting access to fresh water. With California in a drought, it is contradicting to permanently remove massive amounts of water to proceed with fracking when water, a precious resource, needs to be conserved. Furthermore, wastewater, excess fracking water dumped into pits, poses hazardous threats to the environment. These toxic chemicals may seep into clean groundwater or into the air, polluting inhabitants surrounding the fracking source. Exposure to the chemicals may cause detrimental health effects, such as cancer, within humans (No Fracking in California, 2015). Within the environment, these chemicals may bioaccumulate within the trophic levels, harming living organisms and risking disruption in the food web. Endangered species, such as the California condor and San Joaquin kit fox, are threatened due to air pollution and habitat loss by industrial development to continue fracking (“Fracking in California: Nine Questions and Concerns”). Environmentalists continue to fight against California’s decision to pursue fracking, as it clearly possesses damaging environmental

(In this webpage we are given facts and a reason why Fracking is dangerous. As we already know Fracking is hydraulic fracturing. This means that the hard rock that is in the earth itself is so hard that we use a certain chemical to break it. In the facts section we learn that Fracking can make people sick. Toxic, hurt the environment, and can cause climate change. Finally we learn why Fracking should be banned and gives us reasons why this technique should be terminated.)

Following the release of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) draft report on their study of the effects of the fracking industry to ground water, the New York Times published the article titled “Fracking has not had a big effect on water supply, EPA says while noting risks.” The article conveys to the readers on the release of the study and gives opinions of the report’s findings from both sides of the fracking debate. In order to review the content of the article, the specifics presented in the article were compared to those cited in “Hydraulic fracturing: a toxicological threat for groundwater and drinking-water?” by Gordalla et al. This scientific paper had been released two years before the EPA’s report and had also assed the

Thieves who planned a major cyber attack on banks in 2013 struck while the iron was hot. job applicants need to highlight what they bring to the table. as soon as a director blocks a scene, some actors want to rehearse wearing the shoes that are part of their costumes. employers might want to incentivize employees to reach beyond the low hanging fruit. university of Michigan students illustrated how to improve housing projects on Manhattans lower east side with infill. As an alternative to fracking, some countries are studying the environmental advantages of using methane hydrate- what Atlantic writer Charles C. Mann refers to as "ice you can set on

“Fracking ensures that the age of oil-and it 's princely hydrocarbon cousin, the natural gas molecule-will not end because we have run out of fossil fuels. But it may end because burning these wonderful fuels puts the planet farther down a path we don 't want to head down”. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a petroleum mining method to reach remote gas under water that is located in the crust of the earth. Fracking uses a blend of water, sand, and chemicals. Hydraulic Fracturing, “has contributed to a resurgence of oil production in the USA and a dramatic increase in natural gas production” (Hassett). It is speculated to grow and eventually become fifty percent of the natural gas used in our lives today. It is understood that transferring to the use of these natural gasses would be better for the dwindling supply of oil but people are looking over the repercussions of a more common and more frequent fracking. Much of the effects are unknown due to the short past of major fracking in the United States. From the minor, in comparison to the future plans, fracking in places such as Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Texas, Kansas Mississippi, and many others have dozens of incidents. Incidents that range from poisoned drinking water, industrial disasters, explosions, polluted air, and mysterious animal deaths. Fracking is something that if grown can cause disasters of monumental scales. The temporary benefits do not outweigh the costs that people and the

Fracking is a relatively new way of retrieving oil and natural gases from shale rock and other natural resources that reside in the earth’s core, using air and water together. Thus far it has been proven to be a quicker alternative to oil well drilling compared to conventional drilling methods. Oil and gas companies are still learning about the side effects of this elaborate process day by day. Despite a few side effects that have been discovered within the process, fracking has been very efficient and beneficial. As stated in, “Pros and Cons of Fracking: 5 Key Issues”, “Fracking saves lives, and it saves them right now and not at some indiscernible date well into the future”. (http://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2015/05/pros-and-cons-of-fracking-5-key-issues/)

Fracking shouldn’t be used to release oil and natural gas because it makes the airheavier and is renewable. Opponents of fracking mostly focus on the local environmentspotential consequences. The new fracking technology and other types of equipments mostlyfocus on generally to natural gas extraction. The idea of fracking first began in the 1860s and thestudy between oil and gas production output the amount of pressurized treatments being used.Fracking is the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes andmany more but they force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas. It’s important to extractoil and gas because fossil fuels formed from the remains of ancient plants and animals. Theprocess of this extractions helps close some of Earth’s surfaces and it’s

Hydrofracking is a procedure of profound mining where a lot of water, sand, consolidated chemicals are pumped under high weight into penetrated gas well to frame little breaks in the stone by utilizing water drive to open a long small existing cracks. The water is evacuated, sand stays behind propping open the recently made cracks and enabling gas to stream all the more unreservedly into the well. Distinctive state governments are attempting their best to accomplish eco-accommodating hydro fracking. The significant issues raised about hydro fracking incorporates

anomaly and stated to be caused by radiation. We discontinued selling calves for two years.” Due to Alvarado being largely an agricultural community, many resident’s livelihoods were impacts due to their inability to grow crops or raise cattle without the fear of contamination or radioactivity. Additionally, when David went to confront the oil companies about the cancerous side effects undoubtedly due to their fracking operations, he was told that, “The fracking ingredients/chemicals were proprietary and they could not be released. I also unfortunately fought cancer through the statute of limitations and could not sue them to make them stop drilling”. These enormous gas companies lie, deceive, and take advantage of residents all to increase

A professor of molecular medicine at Cornell’s college of veterinary medicine by the name of Robert Oswald and Michelle Bamberger a veterinarian interviewed animal owners in six states Colorado, New York, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas. The interviews turned up twenty four cases of animals possibly being harmed by fracking. It is impossible to tell if it was caused directly from fracking due to incomplete tests on how fracking is affecting these areas but signs strongly point to it being the cause. Oswald said, “We have a number of case studies -- they don't tell us about the prevalence of problems associated with hydraulic fracturing, but they do tell us how things can happen." (Cornell.edu). Some of the case studies show death of many animals such as in Louisiana seventeen cows died after about an hour after being exposed to fracking fluid. The cause of death was circulatory failures which lead to their death. Another case was of one hundred and forty cows were exposed to hydrofracking fluid and seventy died and those that lived many gave still births or had serious defects. As we see the water and chemicals that are pumped into the ground are not healthy and can lead to death or birth defects. Fracking is dangerous and definitely needs to be regulated but there are some upsides to it as

Marc Lallanilla, the assistant editor for Live Science, who is a Master 's degree candidate from the Graduate journalism program in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting, at New York University that has also obtained a Master 's degree in Environmental Planning from University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelor 's degree in Environmental Geography, Communications from University of Texas at Austin, writes this article to help clarify some of the facts related to the fracking industry. He describes how the well is drilled and injected with fracking fluid under extreme pressure fracturing the surrounding rock containing the oil or gas. This in turn releases the