Fracking Research Paper

Hydraulic Fracturing, otherwise known as fracking is the process of injecting large amounts of sand, water, and other chemicals into the shale rocks deep beneath the ground in order to flow natural gas back onto the surface of the well. This process was invented in the early 1900s, and has been controversial ever since. There are two sides to the debate, one being that fracking is known to be horrible for the environment. Fracking has caused families to need to be displaced, and emitted thousands of toxic chemicals into the air causing major public health issues. At the same time, fracking has reduced the reliability on coal, which is known to be horrible for the environment; it has also brought hundreds of thousands of gallons of natural gas

Kellie Fisher from Boston University Law School, explains the effects chemicals used in fracking have had on the health of the general public, “of more than 750 known chemicals used in fracking, more than 100 are either known or suspected endocrine disrupters, and others are known or suspected toxins or carcinogens. Health complaints from people who live near fracking wells include headaches, nosebleeds, stomach pain, and extreme fatigue” (Fisher104). This alarming fact brings serious concerns to the people living around the fracking sites. If you were going to have children, would you want them to be born into an area where people are constantly drilling for fossil fuels and using chemicals that are currently banned by the government for personal use? According to Fisher, in 2004 the EPA deemed hydro-fracking effects to be insignificant, but reopened the investigation in 2011 after requests from congress: “internal documents suggest EPA is facing significant pressure from the oil and gas industry to narrow the scope of the study” (Fisher 105). The health effects that fracking has on the communities around the extraction sites should be enough for the government to regulate fracking practices more than they already

It needs to be transported miles depending on where the dumping location is and if it accidently spills into a river, according to Earth Focus on Fracking Hell: The Untold Story, it would wipe that entire river out. Fracking has severely harmed drinking water sources in the areas around the sites, which eventually could destroy communities around them. Meheny and Guggemos explain the negative effects fracking has not only on the consumption of drinking water, but on the geographical locations of wells and whether or not they are putting drinking resources at risk: “In July 2012, when a record heat and drought struck the mid-Atlantic region, the Susquehanna River Basin suspended 64 water withdrawal permits, the majority of which were for in-state Marcellus shale gas drillers” (Meheny, Guggemos 172). A water withdrawal permit is when 100,000 or more gallons of water is being dispensed, special permission from the town or city where the water source is located is required. The amount of water necessary to perform a fracking operation is extremely concerning due to the lack of water in some parts of the