Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic Fracturing also known as “fracking” is the process in which pressurized liquid is used to fracture layers of rock below the earths surface to extract Petroleum and Natural Gas, both of which are fossil fuels. Fracking was first seen decades ago but it is just in recent years that it has been used to extract shale gas. Fracking has been proven to have many environmental impacts including increased seismic activity, contamination of nearby water supplies and ground water, surface contaminations from spilling and leaking and decreased air quality from various gasses leaking into our atmosphere. While it is an efficient process for extracting gasses which were previously inaccessible, Fracking is now coming under serious scrutiny for its negative environmental impacts. Fracking also uses a large amount of water transported by various means to be able to extract the gases at all in combination with many different types of chemicals all which have various possibly even negative impacts on the surrounding areas. While fracking is effective in extracting Natural Gas, a cleaner fossil fuel than most others, it still increases our dependency on fossil fuels as well as having an extremely negative impact on our environment.

http://www.dangersoffracking.com/

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

http://www2.epa.gov/hydraulicfracturing