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Pros And Cons Of Fracking

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Fracking Fracking is drilling down into earth before high-pressure water mixture goes down directed at rocks to release the gases inside. Water, sand and other chemicals are injected to the rock at high pressure, which allows the gas to come back up and come out of the well where it is collected (BBC News).
Fracking is so controversial because it requires enormous amounts of water to extract and is a disaster for the environment. It takes on average 400 hundred tanker trucks to carry water and other supplies to and from the fracking site. It takes 1-8 million gallons of water to complete ONE fracking job. Ninety eight to ninety nine percent of the fracking fluid is water and sand used to keep the cracks open. The rest is made up of chemicals …show more content…

Methane gas and toxic chemicals leak out from the system and contaminate nearby groundwater. Methane concentrations are 17x higher in drinking water wells near fracking sites than in normal wells(Dong). A man in Colorado went and got a lighter and held the flame by his faucet and it whistled and made a popping sound and it erupted into flames. Contaminated well water is used for drinking water for nearby cities and towns around the fracking sites causing public health concerns(Cart). There have been more than 1,000 cases of humans getting contaminated. Only 30-50% of fracking fluid is recovered, the rest is left in the ground and is non-biodegradable. The excess fluid is left to evaporate releasing deadly organic compounds into the atmosphere creating ground level ozone. In spite of the commercials telling the public how necessary it is to extract gas from U.S. soil and denying the harmful effects of the extraction process, and that fracking gives people jobs and security, fracking is terrible for our ecosystems and environment as a whole. The water that the tankers bring in have to mix the water that they bring in with sand

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Prior to watching Gasland 2 and Truthland, I am familiar with the term “fracking” but never took the time to look into it. After watching these two films, I realized how fracking is a controversial topic in the world of environmentalists. These two very different films explain how fracking is effecting the environment around us. Before explaining further into these films, we need to know what fracking really means. Fracking is “a process by which the rock is split so that natural gas can flow to the surface,” defined by Terry Engelder, a professor of geosciences at Penn State University.

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SUMMARY Journalist, Nick Stockton, in the article, “Fracking’s Problems Go Deeper Than Water Pollution,” published in June 2015, addresses the topic of hydraulic fracturing and argues that fracking has more negative consequences than one might think. Stockton supports his claim first by appealing emotionally through a short summary of a recent event involving fracking and also by utilizing evidence to back up his statements. The author’s overall purpose is to highlight outcomes of fracking in order to make more people aware of issues that can arise from this common way of obtaining energy. Stockton utilizes a scientific, yet critical tone in order to create an unbiased article and appeal to his audience’s concern for the well being of the

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Being in the ground the fluid has the ability to seep into the soil and into water, where it will contaminate drinking water. As fracking involves drilling over 1.6 km into the ground, which is a lot deeper than water bearing rocks. In this case there is the chance that contamination occurs where the drill hole goes through these rocks. Moreover, if the hole is not properly cased to stop leaks the fracking water and fluids can seep into the water aquifers. Wells that are built in rural areas are dangerous as many people in these areas are unaware of the dangers of fracking.

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What is fracking? Fracking is the process of drilling into the ground and releasing a high-pressure water mixture into rocks in order to fracture them and release the natural gases inside. The water mixture consists of water, sand and chemicals. Fracking is beneficial because it lowers the prices of oil and gas, reduces America’s dependency on foreign oil, and reduces CO2 contribution.

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The main way that oil and natural gas reserves are acquired are through the means of Fracking. Also known as hydrofracking, this method utilizes a drill that drills down thousands of feet underground, which is then flushed with millions of gallons of water along with additive chemicals at high pressures to break the rocks sheltering the reserves. This method of attainment is quite risky as it comes with many unfavorable consequences that are quite unbeneficial. Like fossil fuel plants, fracking also releases greenhouse gasses like methane(Potential Health and Environmental Effects of Hydrofracking in the Williston Basin, Montana), which is worse than carbon dioxide and causes air pollution. Alongside that, pollutants like Benzene and Xylene also leak out during the fracking process, which is known to cause serious health conditions and even death in some cases due to the long exposure to the pollutants(Potential Health and

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Fracking poses potential danger to all of the workers. For example fracking can cause small earthquakes that can be harmful. The earthquakes have not been a safety concern yet but if they get any bigger they can become a big concern. During fracking it takes several days, during those days it requires continuous monitoring to ensure the safety of the workers.

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After the crane goes horizontally, water, sand, and chemicals are released. This causes breaks and cracks throughout the rocks, causing shale gas to occur. The gas is trapped within rocks in the depth of the undergrounds. Now, fracking is a debated topic where everyone either wants this energy rush or they have no positive attitudes towards it. When I first heard that fracking is a debated topic, I did not understand why people would not like it.

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It involves high-pressure injections of water and chemicals into rock formations, which in turn release natural gas (Thompson, “Hydraulic Fracturing Should Be Banned”). However, fracking can result in many negative outcomes. For instance, scientists who conducted the earthquake study for Geology discovered that not only did fracking cause the biggest earthquake in Oklahoma, but it also caused more earthquakes in states that hardly experienced any seismic activity (“Wastewater Injection Spurred Biggest Earthquake Yet, Says Study,” The Earth Institute Columbia University). In fact, quakes have hit so frequently in Oklahoma, that state and oil regulators decided to shut down five disposal wells due to the increasing number of earthquakes in a city named Cushing (“Oil Regulators Shut Down Two Disposal Wells After Earthquakes Near Cushing”, State Impact: NPR).

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Fracking is the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc., to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas. Fracking takes place in the United states as well as other countries such as China, Canada, Denmark and Saudi Arabia (Dews, F.). Two stakeholders that are involved with this topic include Oil/gas companies and environmentalists. Oil and gas companies are trying to increase the amount of fracking going on to extract as much oil and gas as possible which will increase oil sales and decrease the price of gasoline therefore helping the economy. People who want to protect the environment want to ban fracking due to its negative impacts on the environment.

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With the rise of natural gas on the market, and shale oils becoming last week’s news, fracking companies are looking towards the gas for their next money pot. Hydraulic fracturing leaves acres of farmland contaminated and the people on that land sick. Should Fracking companies get the ability to continue their endeavors fracking for natural gas, then many more wells will pop up all across the company, destroying the land and contaminating the inhabitants who live there. Overall, The U.S. shouldn’t bother with allowing major fracking companies to frack for natural gas, for the U.S. runs the risk of: the major usage of natural resources, major land damage, and an increase of sick people. With these many problems that fracking causes, there

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Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing is the way of breaking dense rocks in the ground to create a fracture network to make crude oil and natural gas flow in a wellbore to bring on the surface. The process of fracking is complex. Workers have to inject fluids like water, sand, and other chemicals into the ground. Fracking is a good way to get resources but ultimately bad for human health and the environment. There are different types of pollutants that bould be released, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), particulate matter, and methane.

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181 Words | 1 Pages

Some people say fracking is harmful to the environment by damaging nature and by causing water pollution. Some claim that fracking is damaging nature and the landscape; however, there is actually a new technology that help reduce the amount of wells that have to be made. In addition, some people claim that fracking contaminates the groundwater, even though there is no scientific evidence that fracking contaminates groundwater. As a result the National Groundwater Association and the government agency which represents the states have found no evidence that fracking is ruining the drinking water. (No Evidence of Groundwater Contamination from Fracking)

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Fracking: A Crime against Humanity As a law abiding citizen, I cannot conceive or be an advocate of fracking, without questioning its impact on Earth’s layers; and its role in the increment of frequency of earthquakes, contamination of water, and the related human health hazards. While fracking is helping the U.S. to extract shale gas, which is basically trapped between fine sedimentary rocks, the liabilities are overwhelming. In the field of fossil fuel, these rocks are well-known as stale and its exploitation is supporting American’s population, in obtaining the most needed fossil fuel. Deplorably, the risks seem unbeatable.

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679 Words | 3 Pages

While that may be the case fracking companies are recycling fracking fluid and using it in future

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People complain about pollution from factories, cars, global warming, and the melting of polar ice caps, yet many people disregard the dangerous that come with fracking. Fracking is the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, and/or boreholes to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas. Fracking is causing an epidemic economically and environmentally. Fracking is continuously destroying the earth day by day. From the endless fracking today’s economy is depleting.

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