Fracking: What's In the Water?
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, has been largely unregulated. The New York Times reports that the EPA is taking a closer look at the practice:
The Environmental Protection Agency sent letters to nine drilling companies on Thursday requesting detailed information about the chemicals contained in fluids used to crack open underground rock formations in the hunt for oil and natural gas.Natural gas companies are buying up the rights to drill the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and New York in a later day land rush, with a paucity of environmental oversight reminiscent of the bad old days of wildcat drilling. As far as I know, one company has agreed to list the chemicals used in fracking. The EPA is right to seek information on the chemicals mixed with the millions of gallons used in the practice.
posted by Tom Noyes at 7:05 AM
2 Comments:
Fracking should be stopped, the damages to air and water are exensive. Almost as bad as uranium mining. We simply must find cleaner ways to harvest our energy supplies
Hydrofracking has gone on in the oil and gas industry for a long time. In my experience, the propant (to keep the fractures open)is sand. The hydrofracking has been done since the technology was invented, in the Appalachian oil patch but at much shallower depths for the oil and gas. This gas is so much deeper. The Appalachian oil and gas was the first place where oil was mined in the world. It was tapped out in the '80's? Now another gold rush is on, but at much deeper depths.
Is there anyway to power the grid (without over hauling the whole infrastructure), that is without sacrificing the environment, the earth and people too?
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