Natural Gas Hydraulic Fracturing

So, what exactly is the process of fracking? Fracking doesn’t occur till the hole has already been drilled and steel piping has been placed in the well bore. The piping that is inserted has target zones where the oils/gases are contained while the fracturing fluid is injected. After a certain point in time the target zones will not be able to absorb the fluid and pressure is created causing the formation to crack. After that has happened the fluids will return back to the surface.

The issues that occur with this:

• Water use: The EPA estimated that 70-140 billion gallons of water are used to to fracture 35,000 wells in the U.S. each year (a study done in 2010). Fracture treatments in coalbed methane wells use from 50,000 to 350,000 gallons of water per well. Shale wells have the possibility of using 2 to 10 million to fracture a single well. All the fracking of water has raised concerns about the ecological impacts to aquatic, along with dewatering of drinking water.
• Health concerns: Human exposure to fracking to chemicals can occur by ingesting chemicals that have spilled or entered drinking water sources. They can also get into to people’s skin through direct contact.
• Air Quality: It was reported that anywhere between 25-100% of the chemical-laced hydraulic fracturing fluids return to the surface from Shale wells. 2009, the fracturing of flowback and brines produced in PA estimated to be 9 million gallons of wastewater per day.

http://www.earthworksaction.org/issues/detail/hydraulic_fracturing_101#HEALTH

http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/class2/hydraulicfracturing/wells_hydrowhat.cfm

http://www.propublica.org/special/hydraulic-fracturing-national