Fracking in Scotland
You have probably come across the term 'fracking ' in the news quite recently and perhaps wondered if the reality is as ugly as the word. There is an ever rising body of evidence, that there are inherent and unacceptably high environmental and health risks associated with coalbed methane and shale gas extraction - hydraulic fracturing (fracking). This is fast becoming a global issue happening in our own back gardens, it 's contaminating our water supplies and tampering with mass food production industries. Something must clearly be done about fracking. Today I will express my personal feelings towards this topic and discuss the process and dangers of this industry.
So what is it?
Hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking ' is the proccess of drilling and injecting chemically altered fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release the natural gas within.
Each fracking site or gas well requires an average of four hundred tanker trucks to carry water and supplies to and from the site each week. Now as you would imagine this in itself costs money and fuel we can no longer afford to waste. It takes 1-8 million gallons of water and forty thousand harmful hazardous chemicals to complete each fracturing job. The water brought in is then mixed with sand and these chemicals to create 'fracking fluid '. Up to six hundred carcinogens and toxins are used in fracking fluid including methanol, mercury, ethylene, concentrated hydrochloric acid, formaldehyde and uranium which is a highly unstable and radioactive element. The fracking fluid is then pressure injected around 10,000ft into the ground through a drilled pipeline.
Once the mixture reaches the end of the well the high pressure causes the nearby shale rock to crack thus creating 'fissures ' where natural gas flow up and into the well. During this process methane gas and toxic chemicals leach from the system and contaminates nearby ground water. Methane concentrations are 17x higher
So what is it?
Hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking ' is the proccess of drilling and injecting chemically altered fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release the natural gas within.
Each fracking site or gas well requires an average of four hundred tanker trucks to carry water and supplies to and from the site each week. Now as you would imagine this in itself costs money and fuel we can no longer afford to waste. It takes 1-8 million gallons of water and forty thousand harmful hazardous chemicals to complete each fracturing job. The water brought in is then mixed with sand and these chemicals to create 'fracking fluid '. Up to six hundred carcinogens and toxins are used in fracking fluid including methanol, mercury, ethylene, concentrated hydrochloric acid, formaldehyde and uranium which is a highly unstable and radioactive element. The fracking fluid is then pressure injected around 10,000ft into the ground through a drilled pipeline.
Once the mixture reaches the end of the well the high pressure causes the nearby shale rock to crack thus creating 'fissures ' where natural gas flow up and into the well. During this process methane gas and toxic chemicals leach from the system and contaminates nearby ground water. Methane concentrations are 17x higher