There is a process called fracking it is a technique designed to recover gas and oil. Fracking is made up of water, sand and chemicals that are drilled into the earth to release the gas inside. At first fracking was just an experiment in 1947, but the first commercially successful one was in 1950. Fracking is letting the U.S. get vast oil and natural gas reserves. The International Energy Agency thinks that the U.S. could become the world’s leading oil producer by 2015. Some people assume that fracking is not a big deal, but it can be very dangerous. The chemicals used for fracking are very dangerous because they can cause lung cancer and birth defects. Both the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Academy of Sciences have shown clear evidence that hydraulic fracturing can lead to a contaminated water supply(Sanders). With fracking there is a threat called methane emission which can be very …show more content…
A survey of a major oil and natural gas-producing region in Western Canada suggests that fracking has caused earthquakes in the region. The fracking process uses high-pressure injections of fluid to break apart rock and release trapped oil and natural gas. Fracking and wastewater injections can increase the fluid pressure in the natural pores and fractures in rock that helps produce earthquakes. More than 60% of these earthquakes are linked to hydraulic fracture, about 35% come from disposal wells, and only 5 to 10% of the earthquakes have a natural tectonic origin, Atkinson said(Fracking Linked to Most Induced Earthquakes in Western Canada). The organization that is often criticized by the industry as being consistently biased, concludes the EPA was wrong when it applied the non-hazardous label to oil-and-gas waste.(Hasemyre) Disposal of oil-and-gas waste has generated little attention, but it puts people at risk of exposure to chemicals that can cause