Natural Gas Hydraulic Fracturing, or: Hydrofracking

Let me start by saying: initially, I had slim, or rather, no knowledge on this subject. Yet, after educating myself, I realized that this process is delicate, controversial and lucrative. I thought, correctly, that the HYDRO part of the process would have to do with some sort of water activity. Fracking, sounds a little similar to a cuss word, if I say so myself. So, those sum up the knee jerk reaction to all that is: Hydofracking. Needless to say, it is so much more than how it sounds…..

A provided contrast:

Hydraulic fracturing, is the natural production of fractures produced within a layer of rock, caused by pressurized fluids from within. A very robust example of Hydraulic fracturing is : A dike. These fractures, enable the natural transportation of gas and petroleum from their source rocks to reservoirs.

Hydrofracking: The man-made and man-enforced process of speeding up the natural process ( explained above), to release petroleum and other natural gases for use.

The Hydrofracking process, broken down into steps:

1. Build a well: on site, where there is rock layers present, holding natural gases, water or oil. Wells can be build in a vertical direction, ONLY, and accompanied by horizontal or directional sections stemming from the original. These sections can range from 1000- 6000 feet away from the original drilling.

2. Pump those fluids: made up of h2o or chemicals. These fluids are pumped into the formations made on the site. When the pressure gets EXTREMELY HIGH, the fluids have done their job, and the natural rock fractures are enlarged and discovered.

3. Keep the fractures alive: by pumping in a PROPPING agent. This will help to keep those newly found fractures open and detectable, even after the fluid pressure is released.

4. Drain the fractures: of all the natural goodness it has been holding! OH, and all of the chemicals that have been placed inside to provoke their début.

5. Use the stuff, because, my friend, you might have just left anywhere from 20%-85% of the chemicals you injected into mother earths beauteous wrinkles! The stuff you got out, is ‘flow back’, and will be stored in giant pits.

PROS:

– Americans might be able to depend on our land for oil and natural gases, and lessen our dependence on our oil rich, (slightly dangerous) friends in other lands.

CONS:

– Water use: there could be anywhere from 70-140 BILLION gallons of water used annually to fracture wells: this depletes drinking water and aquatic resources.

– TOXIC CHEMICALS: are used, and can easily seep into the drinking waters. A 4 million gallon frack job uses anywhere from 80-330 tons of chemicals. RED FLAG

– Various other Health effects: Shown below in graph form.

So, sure this might seem like a great way to further our Americans relying on America theme mentioned so much recently. (have you followed the GOP primaries?) But, it could also lead to furthering our health issues, environmental woes and eventually become more of a dilemma. It is something to look out for, and begin to recognize as being very apparent on our American soil.