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Pros And Cons Of Hydraulic Fracturing

460 Words2 Pages

Brianna Laranjo
Mr. Wylam
Biology, p.4
5/24/16
Hydraulic Fracturing Debate Earthquakes, water contamination, and mass water wasting. These three things sound pretty terrible, right? Well these are some of the possible outcomes of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing is basically a method of releasing natural gas from rock deep inside of the Earth. Because of the risks that the questionable method poses, the U.S should be working to limit the practice of fracking.

The process of hydraulic fracturing uses water and sand to release natural gas from the Earth. Water and sand are sent down at a high speed into air pockets deep in the Earth. As a result, the rock cracks or fractures and releases the natural gas. The issue with this method is the sheer amount of water that is being sent down into the Earth. Out of the approximately 3% of freshwater on the Earth, we have access to only 1% of it. So what is going to be the bigger and more devastating issue? Not having enough gas to fuel cars/machinery, or running out of our already scarce supply of water. …show more content…

The chemicals sent down with the water and sand during the process of fracking could possibly contaminate groundwater. People will claim that this is false because groundwater is located several meters above where fracking takes place. However they don’t think about the issue of chemicals leaching out on their trip down. The concentration of methane is 17 times higher in drinking-water reserves near fracking sites than in normal reserves. Over 1000 cases of water contamination near gas drilling areas have been documented. Sensory, respiratory, and neurological damage have been reported from ingesting contaminated

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