Hydraulic Fracturing And Its Effects On The Environment

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

Hydraulic Fracturing is a process where high-pressure fracking fluids are forced into rich shale to extract natural resources. These fracking fluids are a mixture of proppants and “chemical additives such as surfactants, biocides, fiction reducers and other compounds meant to help in the process of freeing the trapped gas”. In addition, the million gallons of water injected along with the fracking fluids return as flowback water and this produced water have the “potential to mix with nearby aquifers and surface water”. As a result, there is a considerable amount of public concern about water contamination due to this process of hydrofracking (Thurman, Ferrer, Biotevogel & Borch, 2014).

Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is an oil and gas drilling process that is used to extract oil and natural gas from deep underground. Fracking is the cheapest route for oil and gas companies to make billions of dollars. The majority of the time the cheapest way is not always the best way of doing things. Hydraulic fracturing is not a good thing just because it makes money for--at times--everyone involved, as it causes our air and water to be polluted. There should be more regulations and laws to prevent contamination and protect our air and water from fracking pollution.

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.

Stephen holditch of the department of petroleum engineering, Texas A&M University believe that hydraulic fracking does not cause pollution and has not contaminated any water in any known cases when fracking was used in wells; however there have been many cases of this and could cause a more serious problem if it continues. ‘The oil and natural gas industry support more than 2.1 million jobs according to IHS. Economics” (source 8). ‘Other policy experts say hydraulic fracturing could supply more than half of U.S. natural-gas production by 2030” (source 5). With this being said if we stop hydraulic fracturing we could have millions of people lose jobs and would have a great energy shortage. Though if Hydraulic fracturing continues, climate change could speed up, lots of ground water sources could be polluted and some of the ‘650 chemicals that can cause cancer” (source 3) could spread and there could be a cancer epidemic. Going back to loosing ground water sources, it was found that ‘scientist discovered methane in 115 out of 141 shallow drinking-water wells. It [was also] found the closer the water source was to the natural gas well, the more methane it contained.” (source 4) taking this information in there are also other ways to generate power such as solar farms and hydraulic

Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is a process the the oil and gas industry uses to extract natural gas and oil from shale rock formations buried deep within the Earth. Fracking is done in order to recover oil and natural gas from formations and areas that scientists didn’t think were possible to produce. It is also used for the extraction of oil and natural gas from older wells in more mature oil and natural gas fields. Many people don’t know about the many harmful effects to people and the environment because of fracking. Hydraulic fracturing is harmful to the environment and people because it contaminates drinking water, pollutes the air, and threatens the climate.

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, is a drilling method used for extracting oil or natural gas from deep underground. Fracking is a problem that not many see as controversial. Each human being depends on daily energy, as long as they see the cost for use of energy is cheap they won't question the actual effects it may present to the environment. The energy sources can be mined or pumped from locations worldwide. Each technique for extraction of the resource is having serious impacts on wildlife. Even worse is that fracking can have a serious impact on our water supply. Large amounts of gas now is available due to high use amount of fracking. Though fracking is used worldwide to extract gas and oil, a fracking boom has occurred

Hydraulic fracturing is an increasingly common practice used to access otherwise unobtainable oil or natural gas reserves. While it shows promise as both a valuable economic resource as well as a source of energy independence, many oppose the practice due to alleged environmental dangers. In order to foster a greater understanding of the issues at hand, the following topics are discussed: what hydraulic fracturing is, how it is performed, and where it is located in the United States and abroad; how it has benefited the United States’ economy and how it can support the United States’ energy needs; legal and environmental issues; domestic and overseas regulations; and last but not least, what President Obama had to say about the practice in his 2012 Executive Order. The paper concludes with the author’s personal opinion regarding regulation of the practice here in the United States.

A relatively new process for extracting desired shale oil from the bowels of the earth seems to be shaking things up around operation sites. Environmentalists and oil tycoons have been debating for years over the safety of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, since areas with a high concentration of fracking operations have been affected by several environmental problems. Though many scientists argue that correlation does not necessarily mean causation, the media and many environmentalists use these environmental problems around fracking sites as proof of the long term damage fracking causes. Although it has domesticated the oil industry and reduced usage of coal as a fuel source, fracking is undoubtedly related to many detrimental environmental impacts, such as water table pollution and increased seismic activity.

The fracking process introduces additional industrial activity into communities beyond the wells. Including clearing land to build ne access roads and well sites, trucking in heavy equipment and materials and trucking out the vast amounts of toxic waste.

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.

Hydraulic fracturing is harmful to the environment and people. I believe there are alternative methods that are safer. In order to protect the environment and the population, precautions need to be implemented to reduce the damaging effects of fracking. The government needs to use other methods to change the current process of hydraulic fracturing.

Fracking is a practice done by natural gas companies to obtain gas. The explanation of fracking in Hydraulic Fracturing: A Critical Physical Geography Review, is summarized as “Shale gas development combines two long-established but rapidly advancing technologies: hydraulic fracturing, in which millions of gallons of water treated with chemical additives and sand are injected into subsurface formations at high pressure to break up the rock so that trapped oil and gas can flow, and horizontal drilling, in which the well bore can be pivoted horizontally to follow the contours of oil and gas producing layers of rock. Together, these two technologies allow energy companies to exploit gas and oil formations that were previously uneconomical to tap, catalyzing both large upward revisions in oil and gas reserves estimates, and a dramatic shift in the geographical distribution of energy production in the US.” The controversial part of this process is where chemical additives and sand are injected into the ground, and because of this there are a very black white stance on the topic. Most of the rhetoric used is either pro or anti-fracking. The anti-fracking movement claims that this process is hurting the environment and contaminating water supplies around the United States. While the fracking movement sees it as a clean, new way to get natural gas from within the U.S. Like anything there is trade offs for doing it, on one side we needed natural gas to power the American people’s lifestyle and on the other we need to protect the environment because we do not yet know the effects of fracking. The narrative used on both sides are highly

Hydraulic Fracturing is a process which uses water to crack rock formations as a means to extract natural gas or oil. This method is highly debatable as to whether it uses too much water in areas that have fragile water sources as well as whether the process contaminates surrounding water sources. The State of Texas is a hotspot for hydraulic fracturing because of the amount of shale formations which can produce oil and natural gas. Texas is a dry state which often experiences severe droughts. There is debate about if Texas has sufficient water supplies to support hydraulic fracturing. Since hydraulic fracturing is a fairly new process, there needs to be more research to determine the realistic affect it has on the environment. The

Around the world, countries are dependent on oil and more often than not, foreign oil. The U.S. is at a time where they believe buying foreign oil supports terrorism and hurts our economy. Shale formations deep underground that spread all over the U.S. have been found to contain natural gas. This includes the Marcellus Shale formation and the Utica Shale formation, which can be found all throughout New York State and down the East Coast (Hydro-Fracking pg.1). To get at this abundance of gas underground, hydraulic fracturing was invented, but this new method of gas extraction safe for the environment and for the people around it?