Fracking
- Fracturing a deep shale layer one time to release natural gas might pose little risk to drinking-water supplies, but doing so repeatedly could be problematic
- The basic technique of “hydraulic fracturing” has been used in conventional-style wells since the late 1940s
- When a vertical well shaft hits a layer of shale, chemically treated water and sand are blasted down at high pressure to crack open the rock and liberate natural gas
- Only recently, however, has the technique been combined with a newer technology called directional, or horizontal, drilling—the ability to turn a downward-plodding drill bit as much as 90 degrees and continue drilling within the layer, parallel to the ground surface, for thousands of additional feet
- The U.S. is estimated to have 827 trillion cubic feet of this “unconventional” shale gas within reach—enough to last for decades
- Unlike fracking of vertical wells, horizontal fracking requires enormous volumes of water and chemicals
- Huge ponds or tanks are also needed to store the chemically laden “flowback water” that comes back up the hole after wells have been fractured
- Industry scientists dismiss the idea that fracking has caused polluted water wells and flammable kitchen faucets
- Fracking may be powerful, but it’s not that powerful—not enough to blow open new fissures through that much rock, connecting horizontal well bores (called “laterals”) to groundwater near the surface
- To maximize access to the gas, however, companies may drill a dozen or more vertical wells, closely spaced, at a single site and may frack the lateral for each well in multiple segments and perhaps multiple times
- The massive industrial endeavor demands a staggering two to four million gallons of water for a single lateral, as well as 15,000 to 60,000 gallons of chemicals; multiply those quantities by the number of wells drilled at one site
- Transporting the liquids involves fleets of tanker trucks and large storage containers
- It is laden not only with a cocktail of chemicals—used to help the fracking fluid flow, to protect the pipe and kill bacteria, and many other purposes—but often with radioactive materials and salts from the underground layers
- This toxic water must be stored on-site and later transported to treatment plants or reused. Most companies use open-air pits dug into the ground. Many states require the bottoms of the pits to be lined with synthetic materials to prevent leakage. Some also require the pits to be a sufficient distance from surface water
- The problem is that even when proper precautions are taken, pit linings can tear, and in heavy rains the pits can overflow
- To show that fracking as industry defines it is the problem, you have to examine the alleged threat that is simultaneously the most publicized and yet the most uncertain—the idea that water blasts deep underground can directly contaminate drinking water, by creating unexpected pathways for gas or liquid to travel between deep shale and shallow groundwater
- The EPA claimed that two residential drinking-water wells near two of the company’s gas wells were contaminated with methane of deep and that one of the wells contained chemicals sometimes used in fracking—such as benzene—and was delivering flammable water
- The agency asked the company (Range Resources) to determine which “gas flow pathways” were involved—and many are possible. Gas could have migrated all the way up from the fracked shale through some unknown route. Or a faulty cement job on the vertical part of the well, much closer to the surface, could have done the trick
- Faulty cementing is the leading suspect in possible sources of contamination, and by industry’s definition it is not part of fracking
- Cementing is the obvious “weak link,” according to Anthony Gorody, a hydrogeologist and consultant to gas companies who has been a defender of fracking
- If you do a poor job of installing the well casing, you potentially open a pathway for the stuff to flow out
- Contamination because of bad cementing has been a long-standing problem in traditional vertical wells, which were fracked at times, too
- What is different now with horizontal drilling, she says, is that “because of the depths of the gas and the combination of fracking and directional drilling, instead of 80,000 gallons of water it is now millions of gallons per fracking operation
- Poor cementing accounts for a number of groundwater contamination cases from unconventional gas drilling—including the $1-million Chesapeake violation
- The likeliest cause of the contamination was faulty cementing and casing of wells
- If hydraulic fractures could connect with preexisting fissures or old wells, the chemicals could pose a groundwater risk
- The agency is examining a variety of ways in which drilling could contaminate water supplies—from unlined and leaky storage pits, to faulty well cementing, to the possible communication of deep fractures with the surface and will also use computer modeling to simulate what is going on deep underground
- Ingraffea’s advice is to develop a powerful model that can iterate a scenario of multiple wells, multiple fracks, and gas and liquid movements within a cubic mile of rock—over several weeks of drilling
- Gorody and Jackson agree that the EPA should monitor chemistry in drinking-water wells before and after drilling begins at new sites
- Geoffrey Thyne suggests to make companies put an easily identifiable chemical tracer into their proprietary fracking fluid mixture
Hydraulic Fracturing has been used in conventional-style wells since the late 1940s. There has been a strong controversy with the EPA against the companies and scientists to find out if this method is producing problems. What this process is is that when a vertical well shaft hits a layer of shale, chemically treated water and sand are blasted down at high pressure to crack open the rock and liberate natural gas. However, unlike fracking of vertical wells, horizontal fracking requires enormous volumes of water and chemicals. The U.S. is estimated to have 827 trillion cubic feet of this “unconventional” shale gas within reach—enough to last for decades. Also, since fracking isn't that much of a big manpower, to maximize access to the gas, however, companies may drill a dozen or more vertical wells, closely spaced, at a single site and may frack the lateral for each well in multiple segments and perhaps multiple times. This is pretty much overdoing it. When fracking is done, they are put into large storage containers and shipped by large trucks and sometimes are put into pits. Whats left behind is all the chemicals and the radioactive materials from the underground layer that gets caught in the water flow and as well as the air. Yet, industry scientists dismiss the idea that fracking has caused polluted water wells and flammable kitchen faucets. The EPA has longed for proving them wrong and even taking greater measures that even led to a possible ban for fracking. There were investigations that have been done such as the one that the EPA has suspiciously found a company, Range Resources, who had contaminated the residential drinking water with benzene and was delivering flammable water. Another suspect could be that of due to faulty cementing that could've caused the contamination. Despite all of the data they could gather, fracking still remains a mystery and there have been a number of suggestions to keep an eye out for any problems within fracking.
The were several things that stood out to me was how much gallons of water is used just to do an operation like fracking, the careless and disregard for the people that were affected by water contamination, and how the ones that did the fracking say it was nothing to do with it. This really hits me because I can see how all of this ties together in the way that the companies not only waste a lot of water into the fracking process but also putting their blames on other people to not get in trouble and for them deal with. I think that they should be responsible for their mess and do the right things to fix it. Another thing that I want to point out is if the kitchen faucets are running down with flammable water, that water we use to clean our dishes and other things could've also been contaminated. Anyways, its just a thought I had. Overall, I believe that fracking is a dirty job and that the government needs to also take part in the effort to stop fracking because it can cause serious damage to families, the public, the environment, and water safety. We need another alternative for energy! End fracking!