Summary More than 60% of New Mexico is currently in a moderate to extreme drought. Water is a scarce resource in New Mexico, and care should be taken to limit excess water use. Oil production through horizontal fracking requires large amounts of purified water. Each well drilled requires between 3 and 7 million gallons of clean water. In 2012 alone, 482 new wells were drilled in New Mexico, producing more than 3 billion gallons of water waste. Under current regulations, wastewater must be cleaned or disposed of and cannot be reused. Fracking water is difficult to clean, leading many companies to dispose of much of the water deep underground. The water is stored so deep that it is essentially removed from the water cycle. New …show more content…
Since the 19th century, natural gas has been able to be extracted from deposits that are shallow (Schmidt 2013). Just recently, horizontal fracking has become a cost effective option to collect natural gas in shale deposits. This development has caused a boom in the fracking industry. In fact, “in 2010 shale gas contributed 23% of domestic natural gas production, compared with 2% in 2000” (Schmidt 2013). Horizontal fracking involves pumping a mixture of water and chemicals deep underground in order to fracture shale, thus releasing natural gas trapped therein. While natural gas may be the “cleanest fossil fuel available,” the process of collecting it is not without environmental concern. At the forefront of environmental issues in fracking are the large use of freshwater in wells and the production of large amounts of wastewater. Hunter (2012) points out that as the fracking boom began, “speculators rushed into hydrofracking … with little attention to how much water would be needed or the best practices for managing the water when they were done with the wells.” As mentioned before, in the year 2012 alone, more than 3 billion gallons of fracking water waste were produced in the state of New Mexico. While “conventional gas production generates 65% more wastewater per unit of recovered gas than fracking does” (Schmidt 2013), the use of water by fracking is still of particular to concern to a state like New Mexico
In recent years, the subject of hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking has been a constant subject of interest in the news media. The pros and cons of fracking are passionately debated. However, the public should become educated on the subject of fracking prior to choosing a side of the argument. In the scholarly article, “Super Fracking,” published in 2014, by Donald L. Trucotte, Eldridge M. Moores, and John B. Rundle, a detailed description of fracking is provided, followed by their analysis of current issues surrounding the controversy. According to Trucotte, Moores, and Rundle, fracking saves the consumer money. The wellhead cost to produce natural gas in January of 2000 was two dollars and sixty cents per one thousand cubic feet. At an alarming rate, the cost at the wellhead to produce natural gas had risen to eight dollars per one thousand cubic feet by January of 2006. Comfortingly, the wellhead cost dropped to two dollars and eighty-nine cents by the end of 2012. Impressively, gas production increase and price decrease over the time period are a result of fracking. In their article, Trucotte, Moores, and Rundle describe in great detail that hydraulic fracturing, most commonly referred to as fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth to fracture the layers of rock so that a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the oil or natural gas inside. This method of fracking has been used commercially for the last fifty years.
“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.
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
Over the past decade oil and gas producers have increasingly used hydraulic fracturing also known as fracking to extract oil and gas from the earth. Most people believe fracking is a new process but it has been around for over 100 years. Modern day fracking began in the 1990’s when George P Mitchell created a new technique by combining fracking with horizontal drilling. Since then, U.S. oil and gas production has skyrocketed. But the “new” perception of fracking leads people to incorrectly believe that fracking is temporary and that it somehow harms the environment. The truth is fracking is a reasonable energy solution if oversight and safeguards are used. In the last ten years fracking has improved conditions in the U.S. in three
The actual technique involves “pumping a slurry of water, sand and chemicals underground to fracture shale formations and release hydrocarbons” ("Fracking", 2013, p. 276). Modern procedures use a high degree of manipulation in order to extract the natural gas. The natural gas from fracking is dispersed in rock, and can only be retrieved by using specialized removal techniques (Palliser, 2012). These specialized techniques have many unintended consequences. For instance, the current method of fracking may cause the issue of flowback. Flowback occurs when the internal pressure of the rock formation causes the injected watery, chemical mixture to return to the surface with other naturally occurring substances (Palliser, 2012). This flowback is often injected back underground or can be processed by wastewater treatment plants, where it is later discharged as surface water (Palliser, 2012). Indisputably, the disposal and generation of flowback is one of the main concerns regarding hydraulic fracking. The wastewater developed from fracking procedures is often inappropriately handled and is sometimes sprayed onto rural roads and forests (Finkel & Hays, 2013). As a result, the surface water may come in contact with living organisms and can cause a plethora of issues. For fracking opponents, their driving force is the ill effects of fracking on the environment and overall health. Similarly, the possibility of drinking or coming in contact with chemically laden byproducts
A process for retrieving natural gas from 7,000 feet below the earth’s surface has caused environmental concerns. Hydrofracking has been around since the 40’s but wasn’t until the 90’s where technology allowed for a vertical drill to drill horizontally into shall deep below the surface creating several bores and accessing hundreds of acres of shale. Hydrofarcking comes with its controversy, some argue that it is contaminating water sources and creating environmental concerns, while others say there is no proof of this despite many studies.
“Fracking is the process of obtaining Natural Gas from below Earth’s surface by drilling 1000’s of feet into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside.” Water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure which allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well.” (Jackson). Hydraulic Fracturing got its name due to the fact of how the rock is fractured apart by the high pressure mixture of a number of chemicals, sand, and water. Drilling companies first began Fracking in the early 1940’s, and starting in the 1990’s companies began “safer drilling” due to the amount of concerns that had arisen because early drillers had to detonate small explosions that eventually ended up killing many people. Fracking has been used for nearly 60 years and the number of concerns about it are rising every day. Due to the new technological advancements in drilling Fracking has changed greatly over the years. Before, the drilling would go on for weeks on end in order to extract only a small amount of natural gas. Now, due to the invention of higher powered drills, the drills get double the amount then they used to be able to get in more then half the time. Over 95,000 square miles of shale deposits have been found around the Appalachian Basin but the only way to reach these deposits of shale is through fracking. “Fracking is a technique designed to recover gas and oil from shale rock by drilling
Natural gas is a fossil fuel that plays a critical role in the demand and supply of energy in the United States. It is considered to be a clean burning transition fuel. Compared to coal and oil, natural gas combustion does not generate as much pollution and is therefore considered an ideal partner for renewable energy resources. Natural gas is extracted from shale formations underground that require horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing – “hydrofracking” or “fracking”. This drilling and extraction method is currently considered a global widespread issue due to the rapid increase in the amount of new gas wells that threatens the quality of water around the source (Entriken, Evans-White, Johnson & Hagenbuch, 2011).
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
Few issues have recently gotten as much attention as the energy extraction activities involving a controversial procedure called "fracking." As reports of drinking water becoming tainted with fracking fluid flood the news, both oil and gas companies as well as environmental groups are presenting competing "facts" about the effects of drilling on ground water.
Did you know that at one point, the United States (U.S.) had a fear that they would run out of natural gas? Roughly a decade ago, government officials and industry analysts predicted that the U.S. would have a shortage in natural gas, the main source of energy in the states. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, would shortly be the answer to the problem. Hydraulic fracturing was developed sixty years ago by George P. Mitchell, who combined hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling as a process to extract natural gas from within the ground. Fracking is the process of pumping millions of gallons of chemically treated water, sand, and various chemicals into deep shale formations at pressures of nine thousand pounds per square inch or more.
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
Texas the great lone star state, full of natural beauty that ranges from the majestic big bend national park in the Brewster County on the refreshing shores of the South Padre Island, Texas owns a plentiful quantity of natural resources, nevertheless the process of hydraulic fracturing commonly known as “fracking” taking place in Texas, will destroy our natural resources, turning our vast land of splendor into a methane ridden wasteland. However this is the time to unite against these companies that value money over sustainability. In the first place, fracking consist on drilling using a pressurized water, sand, plus a mix of chemicals to release gas from the rocks beneath the earth, this usually happens at 10,000 feet of depth, although this
In December 2011, the federal Environmental Protection Agency concluded that fracking operations could be responsible for groundwater pollution.“Today’s methods make gas drilling a filthy business. You know it’s bad when nearby residents can light the water coming out of their tap on fire,” says Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation. What’s causing the fire is the methane from the drilling operations. A ProPublica investigation in 2009 revealed methane contamination was widespread in drinking water in areas around fracking operations in Colorado, Texas, Wyoming, and Pennsylvania. The presence of methane in drinking water in Dimock, Pa., had become the focal point for Josh Fox’s investigative documentary, Gasland, which received an Academy Award nomination in 2011 for Outstanding Documentary; Fox also received an Emmy for non-fiction directing. Fox’s interest in fracking intensified when a natural gas company offered $100,000 for mineral rights on property his family owned in Milanville, in the extreme northeast part of Pennsylvania, about 60 miles east of Dimock.
While there are many benefits to fracking, there are likewise many concerns. First, recent studies have demonstrated that increased development of shale gas may hasten climate change because enormous quantities of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that constitutes more than ninety percent (90%) of shale gas, leak during fracking. On a global scale, methane emissions from drilling and fracking production sites cause substantial greenhouse emissions which threaten our climate (Zott). The global warming capability of methane is approximately 33 times that of carbon dioxide in a 100-year block of time and 105 times that of carbon dioxide in a 20-year time frame (Jeffers). Drinking water sources have also been tainted with such explosive methane,