Hydraulic Fracturing Research Paper
Hydraulic Fracturing
Part A: A Background on Hydraulic Fracturing
Hydraulic Fracturing, otherwise know as fracking, is a relatively new development in natural gas extraction industry. Even though natural gas extraction has been around for decades, the process of mining for natural gas in dense shale was not economically feasible until now. As defined by what-is-fracking.com, “Hydraulic fracturing is the process of drilling for natural gas and oil underneath the ground,” (1). In order to extract natural gas from the ground, fracking companies will inject “more than a million gallons of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure down and across into a horizontally drilled wells as far as 10,000 feet below the surface. The pressurized …show more content…
The process of hydraulic fracturing involved hundreds and hundreds of other chemicals, with a handful of them being toxic to humans: including benzene, toluene, xylene and ethylbenzene. Since leaky may be an issue due to the research that was done on methane contamination of water sources, there is also the possibility that the number of other chemicals in the fracking process have the potential to make it to our water sources as well. The reason that wells have the risk of leaking is due to the fact that fracking wells are made of cement and the pressure from fracking causes the cement linings of the well to crack. So, when the fracking fluid is pumped through the well, some of the fluid will leak through the pipes and not find it’s way back up to the earth’s surface. So much so, that the fracking process had to be exempt from the Safe Water Drinking Act in order for companies to begin drilling. When lawmakers first presented the exemption, it was stated that 30 % of the fracking fluid would remain underground once the fracking site has completed drilling. This is concerning because there are a number of toxic chemicals reaming underground, with the hope that the fracking fluid does not reach drinkable water sources or effect the ecology of the surrounding area of a …show more content…
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Part B: Should natural gas replace coal? What does the science say? What role does climate change have in this debate? Natural Gas may appear to look like forward moving progress in the field of non-renewable energy, since it is a cleaner energy source to burn compared to coal, but that is not necessarily the case. Due to a number of potential environmental issues brought on by the fracking process, we might not want to jump to any conclusions on which one is the ‘cleaner’ energy source.
The main reason that Natural Gas is not necessarily a better energy source than coal is because there is very little data or science that supports the hydraulic fracturing as being a safe process. Since this is a relatively new technology, we are completely unaware of the true long-term negative impacts fracking has on the people and environment in the surrounding area. Since fracking has begun, researchers have observed that methane levels are very high in the surrounding areas of sites and there have been hundreds of complaints of human and animal health concerns, but this can not definitively be tracked back to fracking. The only thing we really know about fracking is that it is cleaner to burn than coal and it has the potential to create jobs, which has made people seem oblivious to the possible problems this industry can create. In order for fracking to be a truly forward step in the non-renewable energy
Part A: A Background on Hydraulic Fracturing
Hydraulic Fracturing, otherwise know as fracking, is a relatively new development in natural gas extraction industry. Even though natural gas extraction has been around for decades, the process of mining for natural gas in dense shale was not economically feasible until now. As defined by what-is-fracking.com, “Hydraulic fracturing is the process of drilling for natural gas and oil underneath the ground,” (1). In order to extract natural gas from the ground, fracking companies will inject “more than a million gallons of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure down and across into a horizontally drilled wells as far as 10,000 feet below the surface. The pressurized …show more content…
The process of hydraulic fracturing involved hundreds and hundreds of other chemicals, with a handful of them being toxic to humans: including benzene, toluene, xylene and ethylbenzene. Since leaky may be an issue due to the research that was done on methane contamination of water sources, there is also the possibility that the number of other chemicals in the fracking process have the potential to make it to our water sources as well. The reason that wells have the risk of leaking is due to the fact that fracking wells are made of cement and the pressure from fracking causes the cement linings of the well to crack. So, when the fracking fluid is pumped through the well, some of the fluid will leak through the pipes and not find it’s way back up to the earth’s surface. So much so, that the fracking process had to be exempt from the Safe Water Drinking Act in order for companies to begin drilling. When lawmakers first presented the exemption, it was stated that 30 % of the fracking fluid would remain underground once the fracking site has completed drilling. This is concerning because there are a number of toxic chemicals reaming underground, with the hope that the fracking fluid does not reach drinkable water sources or effect the ecology of the surrounding area of a …show more content…
**
Part B: Should natural gas replace coal? What does the science say? What role does climate change have in this debate? Natural Gas may appear to look like forward moving progress in the field of non-renewable energy, since it is a cleaner energy source to burn compared to coal, but that is not necessarily the case. Due to a number of potential environmental issues brought on by the fracking process, we might not want to jump to any conclusions on which one is the ‘cleaner’ energy source.
The main reason that Natural Gas is not necessarily a better energy source than coal is because there is very little data or science that supports the hydraulic fracturing as being a safe process. Since this is a relatively new technology, we are completely unaware of the true long-term negative impacts fracking has on the people and environment in the surrounding area. Since fracking has begun, researchers have observed that methane levels are very high in the surrounding areas of sites and there have been hundreds of complaints of human and animal health concerns, but this can not definitively be tracked back to fracking. The only thing we really know about fracking is that it is cleaner to burn than coal and it has the potential to create jobs, which has made people seem oblivious to the possible problems this industry can create. In order for fracking to be a truly forward step in the non-renewable energy