Hydraulic Fracturing Research Paper

For example, Fox documents many cases of well water going bad after a hydrofracking company began work. To prove this, he videos countless cases of people setting their sink water on fire due to excess methane. He even records a case of a stream bubbling with methane. However, according to FrackNation, there are records of springs being lit on fire 150 years ago due to natural methane being released from the ground. This was well before fracking began (McAleer).

Prior to watching Gasland 2 and Truthland, I am familiar with the term “fracking” but never took the time to look into it. After watching these two films, I realized how fracking is a controversial topic in the world of environmentalists. These two very different films explain how fracking is effecting the environment around us. Before explaining further into these films, we need to know what fracking really means. Fracking is “a process by which the rock is split so that natural gas can flow to the surface,” defined by Terry Engelder, a professor of geosciences at Penn State University.

Water contamination is one of the most well-known risks caused by hydrofracking, most likely because water is one of the key components of this process. “Each well uses between two and five million gallons of locally-sourced freshwater which will be permanently contaminated” by the toxic chemicals placed into the water during fracking (Fracking: The Dangers). Some of the water returns to earth’s surface and is stored above ground in steel casks. It is finally inserted deep into the ground into “waste wells” (Fracking: The Dangers). Unaccounted water that is not put into waste wells may stay underground; however, its chemicals can make their way into the water supply of the surrounding areas which causes contamination.

The drilling process is several thousand feet. The drilling is done until a shale that contains trapped natural gas is reached. In order for the shale to release this gas pumped at a high pressure a mixer of sand, water, and many other chemicals is mixed together and then pumped to brake the shale. After the shale has released the natural gases, it is drawn back up through the fissures to the surface. Once it reaches the surface it is processed and refined, and ready to be shipped to the market.

Fracking is not a new think it was invent seventy years ago in 1947(“ Thanks To Fracking, Earthquake Hazards In Parts Of Oklahoma Now Comparable To”).For most of those years it has been loosely regulated because people were further worried about what was happening with the coal industry. The fracking fluid starts in a tank then it moves through a pipe into a sand truck. Then the mixture is moved into the blending truck.

There have been many recent studies viewing an increased number of earthquakes in areas affected by fracking. According to the article Introduction to Hydraulic Fracturing, the injected fluids can reach a critical point and can cause a shift in tectonic plates. The frack water injected into the shale has shown to have the ability to shift the earth above causing minor fractures in the rock around the drilled area, which can result in major increases in earthquakes in the fracked area. According to the article Natural Gas Drilling: Impacts of Fracking on Health, the high pressure used to fracture the shale below can continue the cracks, allowing the frack water to flow into the drinking water.

What the Frack? : The True Cost of Hydraulic Fracturing Hydraulic fracturing is a slot machine that pays out every time. With each quick pull of the lever, a million gallons of natural gas is dumped into the cash box.

Coal is one of the

With the increased scale of fracking in Texas, one might wonder if the oil boom is affecting our water supply. The value of water in Texas is deeply cherished considering Texas’s dry climate and long-standing droughts. One may even wonder if Texas is valuing its water as much as it is its oil. As research furthers, we can begin to weigh the positive and negative effects of oil fracking. By providing overwhelming data on oil fracking

In addition, there are more downsides to fracking than just water pollution, and that is the pollution of our environment. The condition of our environment is horrendous when fracking is conducted. To add on to that statement, fracking has caused natural gas leakage into the air, marred landscapes, and many more hazards to our environment. Fracking has already caused pollution to the air, and fracking companies have to remove trees, then that takes away more air from our environment. Trees are vital to Earth’s supply of oxygen, and these companies are just taking the air straight out of the lungs of the people.

1. Introduction 1.1 What is hydraulic fracturing? Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is the process of drilling down into the earth’s surface, followed by a high-pressure water mixture, which is directed at the rocks to release the gas and oil that is inside of them. Furthermore water, sand, chemicals and other substances are injected into the rock at a high pressure, in order to allow the gas in the rock to flow out and up to the top of the fracking wells.

People complain about pollution from factories, cars, global warming, and the melting of polar ice caps, yet many people disregard the dangerous that come with fracking. Fracking is the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, and/or boreholes to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas. Fracking is causing an epidemic economically and environmentally. Fracking is continuously destroying the earth day by day. From the endless fracking today’s economy is depleting.

Fracking is the process of pumping different liquids into the ground at high pressure to create fractures, cracks, and fissures in the rock so oil or gas can be extracted. The companies involved in the fracking industry are forced to stop extracting gas. This is because there has been a moratorium placed on Hydraulic Fracturing until further notice. A moratorium is a temporary prohibition of an activity. This means that companies that depend their earnings solely on fracking are failing.

Therefore, fracking will not continue because of its bad reputation. Fracking companies should also list the chemicals used in fracking fluids so that the contamination in water can be reversed. Linda Dong from dangersoffracking.com clearly explains that the underground water that is contaminated is permanent damage. Without knowing the chemicals in fracking fluids, better alternatives to harmful chemicals cannot be found. However, the fracking fluid that is left underground damages the environment that we live in.

Affecting the most drilling operations, ground water contamination presents a threat to the the drinking water for residents of areas near drilling operations (Mearns). Because an oil well can penetrate drinking water aquifers, concerns arise that the water sources will be compromised for large areas potentially causing sickness (Mearns.) The disposal of drilling fluids, though easily handled safely, can contaminate the soil if incorrectly removed due to the high level of chemicals present (Mearns). Like oil and drilling fluids, methane gas, which can be deadly if inhaled, raises alarm due to the large levels released during fracking, a type of oil recovery (Mearns). Apart from the liquid and gas concerns, the actual drilling and pipe laying processes disrupt cities near the sites.