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Proceed with CautionFriday, May 15, 2015 - by Water2Drink![]() Trying to reduce our country’s dependence on overseas oil
has led to the development of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The fracking
process blasts a cocktail of chemicals and huge amounts of water into shale
deposits, which releases natural gas and oil from the rock. Fracking creates
concern on two fronts: one, the contamination of surface, ground, and drinking
water; and two, the loss of millions of gallons of fresh water from the water
cycle. Recently, the drinking water of three Pennsylvania homes was
found to contain trace amounts of fracking fluid. While the amounts of contamination at these home
were under levels that would cause health effects, “‘These findings are
important because we show that chemicals traveled from shale gas wells more
than 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) in the subsurface to drinking water wells,’ says
Susan Brantley, a Penn State University professor of geosciences.” This raises
the question, how far can fracking contamination migrate into aquifers and other
#freshwater sources?
Fracking wastewater management is our second concern. #Fracking
wells use between one and five million gallons of local fresh water. These
amounts stress the surface and groundwater supplies available. “Up to 60% of
the water injected into a wellhead during the fracking process will discharge
back out of the well shortly thereafter, as flowback wastewater. Thereafter, and
for the life of the wellhead, it will discharge up to 100,000 gallons
(378 m3/day) of wastewater. This wastewater needs to be captured, and disposed
of or recycled,” according to an article by Jeff Easton on the Waterworld
website (emphasis added). This significant increase of contaminated
#hydraulicfracturing wastewater requires a long term solution for its
treatment, recycle, or reuse. |
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