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The Pros And Cons Of Fracking

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There is a famous quote in Spanish that says: “Don’t destroy with your feet what you construct with your hands.” And this is what is being done in Pennsylvania right now. The United States is in the midst of a groundbreaking oil and gas drilling rush brought on by a questionable technology called hydraulic fracturing or Fracking. As a result, there have been several reports of poisoned drinking water, mysterious animal deaths, polluted air, industrial disasters and explosions. Fracking is the process in which natural gas is extracted from shale layers typically thousands of feet deep. These targeted shale aren’t especially permeable, meaning most of the gas is trapped. Drillers blast the rock layers with highly pressurized water containing …show more content…

Development was supported by a landmark study conducted by the Federal Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) in 2004 which found that hydraulic fracturing supposedly posed no threat to underground drinking water supplies. Not long afterwards, hydraulic fracturing was spared from the Safe Drinking Water Act by the Bush administration in the Energy Policy Act of
2005. Since that time fracking has become the new boom industry. (Appalachian Voices, 2013)
Demographics
A study by the Nature Conservancy of fracking infrastructure in Pennsylvania found that well pads average 3.1 acres and related infrastructure. Fracking poses serious threats to the environment and public health. Often, this development occurs on remote and previously undisturbed wild lands. As oil and gas companies expand fracking activities, national parks, national forests and other iconic landscapes are increasingly at risk. (Elizabeth Ridlington,
Fracking by the Numbers 2013, pp. 14-15)

Victims/Cost of the event
Fracking in Pennsylvania is disproportionately situated in poor rural communities, which carry the brunt of associated pollution, according to a new study. The study bolsters concerns that

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