What The Frack?

As the years have passed, scientists have found out how destructive, we as humans, truly are to the environment and how if we do not change our ways, we will keep destructing it.  Along with figuring this out, they have discovered and engineered more ways to create and harnass energy.  Unlike coal, many of these new ways use clean and efficient methods to create all that energy we use.  Some examples are solar, wind, or nuclear.  There is also another, hydrofracking, which is at heart, a natural process that we essentially just speed up and alter to get the gas, oil, or other substances that we want.

Hydraulic Fracturing (hydrofracturing), is a method for extracting natural gas for the purpose of creating ‘cleaner’ energy (“What Is Hydrofracking?”).  The method is different then the typical drilling for natural gas that we are used to becuase of both the mechanics of it and that is more economical than the other (“What Is Hydrofracking?”).  Its pretty basic to understand, especially if you ever took earth science.. Which I hope we all did if we passed elementary/middle/high school and are in college at this point (at least thats the standard in NJ).  But anyway.. We all know that rocks (in this case shale) and all that other earthy good stuff is beneath us and all these 50 story buildings we’ve built on the surface.  It goes deep and its everywhere… Which can be good in some ways for us, like being able to steal some gas from it.  When this shale settled down into its nice little place, it naturally fractured and created air ways/pockets that can then fracture some more with the help of us little humans (“Natural Gas”).

To get the gas that we want, we take a wellbore and drill it all the way down to that shale, but unlike normal drilling we turn it horizantally in this case so that it can go into the fractures in the shale and make them open, releasing that gas that was already there (“Natural Gas”).  In addition to the drilling, to further the fractures and to keep them open the companies use water and chemicals mixed with sand that they inject into the veins and pockets (Kaplan). These chemicals are meant to make the process more efficient and economic, but can ultimatey hurt the people’s health and the environment (“What Is Hydrofracking?”). Now this is where the method gets all its haters… like many other things in the world.  There are always people that will be against something, many of those times for goo reasons, sometimes not so much.

In this case, residents in the states, or area of a hydrofracking site, tend to hate the method and are campaigning against it.  The residents find a problem with the high volume use of water, which can be 6-8 million gallons and what that use of water can do to both the water supply and the environment as whole (“What Is Hydrofracking?”).  Also, the chemicals that the companies use as ‘proppants’ can be rather harmful instead of ‘clean’ or environmentally friendly.  So the question now is, is this method good or bad? Worse than coal or oil use? Or worth the somewhat detrimental effects that occur?  When you read about why the activists are so against the method you start to wonder these questions and may start to side with them. But you also start to think about that method.. that one thats nuclear.. and that if goes wrong can harm many.  We still use that one, even though we have seen the harmful effects (Chernobyl, TMI, Fukushima).  In the case of nuclear energy, we apparently find that the benefits outweigh the dangers; which is something that I fully believe becuase as long as we build the plants properly and are prepared for events such as earthquakes, it is fine and more helpful than harmful.

If these chemicals will end up harming us in the process of this method, is it really worth it, or can we think of any other ways to gain gas and energy? I mean we all know that universities like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (don’t forget all the foreign equivelants too!) are turning-out hundreds of scientific geniuses yearly.  Engineers, biologists, researchers, etc., with the amount of knowledge these men and women have, I think we can find other methods, or further this one to be more environmentally friendly.  All methods at the beginning were not 100% full proof, and have all been improved and are now much better; something that I think is possible for hyrofracking as long as we put the time and energy into it.

References

Kaplan, Thomas.  “Millions Spent in Albany Fight To Drill for Gas.” Nytimes.com. 25 Nov 2011. Web. 13 Feb 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/nyregion/hydrofracking-debate-spurs-huge-spending-by-industry.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all>

“What Is Hydrofracking?” Peacecouncil.net. 2012. Web. 13 Feb 2012. <http://www.peacecouncil.net/NOON/hydrofrac/HdryoFrac2.htm>

“Natural Gas Hydro-Fracking in Shale.” CitizensCampaign.org. 13 Dec 2011. Web. 13 Feb 2012. <http://www.citizenscampaign.org/campaigns/hydro-fracking.asp#frack>