Well, I can tell you right now it has nothing to do with the awkward curse word used in the Sci-Fi series Battlestar Galactica and not just because of the different spelling.

 

Instead it looks something more like this, impressive.

Hydrofracking is described by Wikipedia as ,

“the propagation of fractures in a rock layer caused by the presence of a pressurized fluid. Hydraulic fractures form naturally, as in the case of veins or dikes, and is one means by which gas and petroleum from source rocks may migrate to reservoir rocks. Energy companies may attempt to accelerate this process in order to release petroleum, natural gas, coal seam gas, or other substances for extraction, where the technique is often called fracking or hydrofracking”

Below are images that further illustrate the aforementioned process.

Well, that doesn’t seem so bad right? If  this occurs naturally than it only seems smart to copy nature’s technique to retrieve badly needed resources? I can understand why this seems especially attractive to those who want to see us reduce our reliance on foreign oil as we could replace much o it with natural gas. Natural gas also much cleaner than oil or coal and gives off less emissions. In this video  founder and chairman of BP capital , T. Boone Pickens talks about our lack of an energy plan and his experience with hydrofracking which he endorses as being a safe and effective way to extract natural gas.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-january-27-2011/t–boone-pickens

Despite T. Boone Pickens’ assurances  hydrofracking  seems to be a controversial method. A Google image or video search will yield a plethora of pictures  of protestors, satirical cartoons and videos depicting unhappy citizens voicing their opinions on the dangers of hydrofracking.

Why are people so unhappy and wary of this mining process?

This article and video discuss a temporary hydrofracking ban in the new York city of Binghamton. In this interview the mayor expresses his reservations about  the impact that hydrofracking could have on a community.

http://www.capitaltonight.com/2011/12/binghamton-mayor-defends-hydrofracking-moratorium/#

Mayor Ryan brings up some legitimate reason for wanting to further look into hydrofracking. Not only does he cite socioeconomic and traffic reasons (hydrofracking requires a fleet of trucks to cart the required water and sand in and the waste products and gas out)  but also mentions the environmental concerns. This is a good point as hydrofracking has the potential for polluting the water supply as it did in Dimmock Pennsylvania. “In Dimmock Pennsylvania, the epicenter of the national hydrofracking debate, nearly 1400 residents have contaminated water. Many blame a drilling company called Cabot oil and gas.” I can see this as being entirely possible after looking at the following diagram.

The well goes right down through some fresh water aquifers and any errors in detonating the charges to cause the fractures could cause these aquifers to become contaminated. Not only this but some methods such as the one being debated in new York is called high-volume hydraulic fracturing, uses chemicals. “In this method, millions of gallons of initially clean water per well are intentionally contaminated with the addition of a wide range and large volume of very toxic chemical additives.  This technique combines “water with a friction-reducing chemical additive which allows the water to be pumped faster into the formation.” (http://wellwatch.wordpress.com/what-is-hydrofracturing/)

Once the contaminated water comes back up out of the ground it has to be trucked away to a plant and treated. Hydrofracking doesn’t seem worth it to me if there are any better ways.  It seems like a lot of work and appears to be a danger to the environment, but I would also like to see us have access to cleaner fuels and climate our reliance on foreign oil. So the question then is, is it worth the risk? I don’t know, I will leave that to the experts  but I feel that if an area is to be fracked it should be done with every possible precaution and if the risks stop outweighing the benefits the method should be scrapped ASAP.