Summary: Negative Effects Of Fracking

Fracking is a pressurized, chemically treated mixture of water and sand used to release and extract natural gas and petroleum from shale rock. The process involves a well drilled vertically to the desired depth, then turns ninety degrees and continues horizontally for thousands of feet into the shale believed to contain the trapped natural gas. A mix of water, sand, and various chemicals are pumped into the well at high pressure in order to create fissures in the shale through which the gas can escape. Natural gas escapes through the fissures and is drawn back up the well to the surface, where it is processed, refined, and shipped to market. Flowback returns to the surface after the fracking process is completed (Fracking: The Process 1). Environmentalist want the technique of fracking banned because it plays a part in global warming, affects our water, and causes human health problems. If fracking cannot be banned because of its necessity, then it should be made safe and eco-friendly.

“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.

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).

While fracking has provided a cleaner fuel, there are many negative effects to the environment, the beef industry, human health and little positive effects. Some of these effects include; ground water being polluted with harmful chemicals, this polluted water can cause extreme sickness in humans. Fracking disrupts the habitats of animals and they have to leave the area to find clean water and a better food supply. Also it has been taking an effect on the beef industry in how farmers raise and sell their cattle. Fracking can have negative long term effects on the people living in the local area and make that area inhabitable.

With the age of constant industrial and technological growth has come the necessity for not only cost effective and efficient methods for industry, but also the need for obtaining fuel for the machines that make the modern world possible. Oil has become as precious a commodity as gold, if not more so; its attainments constantly driving the world's largest businesses and governments across the world into action. Naturally, a "quick-fix" solution to this problem is constantly sought after by oil companies wishing to provide oil on a massive scale. One of these drilling methods is known as induced hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking).

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.

What’s fracking and what's the hype about it? Well fracking is the act of injecting liquid into rocks to extract their oil concentrate, basically it’s like drilling for oils and gases, but different in some aspects. Drilling for oil –– wait no, drilling for anything –– is a double-sided blade, on one hand we have the costs, labor, time put forth, as well the depletion of habitats, on the other hand, we need to obtain the resources and use them efficiently. Establishing that we can infer that fracking is a major way we collect resources to keep our lives fueled. Us humans have been finding different ways to get the most out of something for awhile.

Fracking is the practice of using chemicals water and sand to collect gases, natural gases so that we can use them for things like driving heating our homes and other things that are powered by gases.fracking can be dangerous to the people that live around the sites and to the people that are working

Fracking is a very debated topic around the world, whether we should continue fracking for the oil and gas it produces, or if the pollution caused by fracking is too much of problem. On the negative side of fracking, the effects from include: worsened asthma, stress, heavy pollution around the oil and gas sites, etc. If you look on the positive side of fracking you’ll find it is a way of producing oil and gas that could take America to the top in terms of energy export around the world, and it creates numerous jobs, which surely helps out the American economy.

I am aware that you are a busy man so allow me to get straight to the point. Fracking is a wonderful method of obtaining the energy we need, so that the world can continue to function as it is doing so, for future generations. Fracking helps reduce CO2 emissions and it also helps create jobs. Fracking would also cause the U.S. to become an energy independent nation for the first time in its history.

When you look at the title of this paper you ask yourself, what is fracking, and you probably try to learn the definition so that you’ll actually understand what I am writing about. However, I am going to tell you what fracking is. What is fracking? Fracking is the injection of fluid into the ground in order to get natural fossil fuels to come to the surface, in order to use them for gas and other things (Fracking). How does fracking work? Water and sand are pushed into the ground horizontally and small explosives are inserted in order to push out oil and gas from the natural rocks that are there. Fracking has been going on for decades but there is a new type of fracking, deep fracking, that was first used in Texas in 1999 (MacDonald, 2004). There are good and bad effects of using fracking to get natural gas, many different things are effected on the Earth either way.

While it is good for the economy, fracking is dangerous and bad because it could damage the air, the water, and damage the health of citizens. Fracking is good for the economy because it can provide many jobs for people who are unemployed. Fracking can damage the air because the waste fluid that is left behind from fracking releases harmful VOC’S into the atmosphere which causes contaminated air. Fracking could damage the water because during the process of fracking methane gas and toxic and chemical leach out from the system and contaminates nearby ground water. Fracking can damage the health of citizens because it produces approximately 300,000 barrels of natural gas a day, which can cause health hazards and gets citizens really sick. To

Fracking is a safe way of producing oil and natural gasses. Some of the benefits of fracking are lower energy costs, because of the large deposits of oil and gas there has been a big increase in available resources and a big drop in prices. This can lead to a sustainable amount of savings for consumers. Another benefit of fracking is that consumers of energy are seeing economic change in global prices and lowered taxes on gas and oil. More jobs are being created and our reliability on other country’s oil is reduced significantly. For the most part, most of the fracking fluid stays in the ground but when it does come up, it’s either dumped in rivers and streams, left in open pits and contaminates our air, or it gets hauled away. The toxic fracking

Fracking uses a very technical machine that drills a hole on an “oil reservoir” or “marcellus formation” that “involves pumping water, sand, and some trace chemicals under high pressure into a completed wellbore” (White). After all the chemicals are pressured in the soil, it creates “fissures” which “allow[s] oil or natural gas to flow into the well” (White). The process does raise some concerns for me as I read that chemicals are being inserted into the earth but it does not seem as bad when White explains it. According to White, “the fracking material is a mix of water, trace chemicals, and sand… few[chemicals], such as guar gum, an