Ryan Fuller

Instructor: Malcolm Campbell

English 1103
March 30, 2015
What the Government Isnt Telling Us About Fracking

When asking a handful of my friends if they knew what fracking was they
probably had the same thought you did when you read the title, what the hell is
fracking? But what if I told you that there is a brand new, revolutionary, state of the art
machine that shoots high-pressured liquid, into the earths crust, breaking up rocks and
releasing natural gas inside? And what if I also told you that this process, which is called
fracking, would supposedly bring an abundance of natural gas to the United States
making us a much more energy independent country?
Now what if I told you that fracking pollutes surrounding ground water, has been
linked to causing earth tremors, and when not properly sealed can leak harmful gasses
into the air? The process of fracking is something that has been around since 1949 and
really has been in the shade, but until recently fracking has started to get more and more
attention in the United States, and considering how controversial the process can be, its
hard for anyone to not take notice. Sure its a better process to extract more natural gas
out from the earth, but with it now being recently introduced to North Carolina we need
to ask ourselves is it really worth it?
Natural gas is something that the United States as a whole needs to start investing
in. According to Apex Energys website natural gas produces roughly half less

greenhouse gas emissions than todays latest black coal fire stations; just on this fact
alone we know that the United States needs to start producing more natural gas, and now
people are thinking that fracking is the newest way to make this possible.
Hydraulic Fracturing is really a simple concept to understand when you break it
down. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the process of fracking is
basically pumping large quantities of fluid, a mixture of water and chemicals, down a
wellbore, which is just a large deep hole in the ground encased in concrete or metal, and
into the shale rock. Once you pump the water and chemicals into the shale rock it releases
the natural gas that lies within. The controversial discussion lies within the chemicals that
are being used and the risks that they pose with the surrounding environment.
One of the main controversial topics that surround fracking would be the amount
of water that is used in the entire process. Dangers of Fracking states that each well
requires on average 400 tanker trucks to carry water and chemicals to the fracking site.
Tanker trucks carry on average 10,000 gallons of liquid in each truck; this means that
theres on average four million gallons of water and liquid that are needed for only one
fracking site. Theres roughly five hundred thousand fracturing sites that are currently
running in the United States, take that and multiply it by the four million gallons of water
needed to run a site on average, multiply it again by the eighteen times a well can be
fractured before its all used up and you get 36 trillion gallons of water that is being used
up right now in the United States. Small ponds, and even lakes have been known to dry
up from fracking companies coming in and using the water for nearby sites.
Not only does it use up a lot of water, but it also contaminants a lot of water.
During the process of fracking, poisonous gasses such as methane leak out and

contaminate the water leading methane concentrates being seventeen times higher in
drinking wells near fracking sites rather than normal. Houses that are near hydraulic
fracturing sites have been known to have water that has been contaminated; with over a
thousand documented cases of this happening coupled with some of them leading to
sensory, respiratory, and neurological damages, you can see why people are on the fence
about fracking.
Along with the water that is injected into the ground Dangers of Fracking again
states that they also add in over 600 chemicals, some toxic, into the ground. Menthol,
uranium, lead, mercury, and radium are just five on the list that could cause human
beings harm. Per fracking site there are 40,000 gallons of chemicals that are being used
and on average only thirty to fifty percent of them gets recovered; the other percentages
get left behind and contaminate the ground that is surround the site. If fracking
contaminates the ground water that is nearby, that means all of the animals that are living
nearby are now drinking contaminated water that could eventually kill them. Couple this
with the fact that the ground is contaminated with a left over of fifty to seventy percent of
chemicals that didnt get used, now fracking has just ruined the local environment.
Earthworks Action reports that in May of 2011 a mechanical problem at a Pennsylvanian
site led to thousands of gallons of contaminated liquid spewing out, polluting local
groundwater and soil, even causing families to evacuate the area. In 2013 Colorado had
41 spills alone, this is just one state out of the twenty-two that allow fracking spills to
happen; this doesnt even take the ground water pollution complaints into consideration.
Since fracking involves injecting water and chemicals into the earth you wouldnt
think that pollution and air quality would be affected by fracking. Unfortunately the

methane and other gasses that are used during the process leak out and destroy the ozone
as well as the Earth. Earthworks states that in Texas, the Barnett Shale gas fields have a
higher benzene level than normal, the only possible explanation for this would be the fact
that benzene has to be leaking out during fracking. Between the years of 2006 and 2013
there have been over thirty complaints in the county of Karnes, Texas, complaints of foul
smelling odors, sulfur, egg-like smell in the environment. This not only harms the
citizens and the wildlife in that county but it also destroys property values and destroys
the ozone layers. Imagine if this happened multiple times in states all over the nation, can
you even begin to fathom what that would do to the environment?
Although rare and sometimes unaccounted for, fracking has been proven to cause
small tremors. Anytime you inject something to break up rocks you are bound to be
causing tremors at some point. CNBC reported that for the first time ever little under a
year ago fracking has been the direct cause of a tremor in Ohio. Taking notice of five
small tremors that happened in a contained location in the Youngstown area of Ohio,
state geologists investigated, and later found out that fracking in the Utica Shale has been
the cause of it. From this extended a new law that prohibits fracking sites being anywhere
within three miles of a fault. This is not only happening in the United States but also
overseas. Fracking was to blame when two tremors happened in Blackpool, Great Britain
in 2011 reported the BBC. The Geo-Mechanical Study of Bowland Shale Seismicity
reported, If these factors were to combine again in the future local geology limits
seismic events to around magnitude 3 on the Richter scale as a worst-case scenario. Not
only is fracking posing serious risks for seismic activity here in the United States but it is
also linked to the same thing overseas, this has to be cause for concern!

Fracking is something that is taking over the country by storm, and with more and
more states starting to incorporate it into their ways of obtaining natural gas there are still
too many people in our area are being left in the dark. According to WRAL, the house and
the senate have reached an agreement on a bill, SB 76, that does not "fast track" the
fracking process as earlier bills did, but allow the Mining and Energy Commission to
develop fracking rules before permits are issued. However, recently a bill has emerged
(HB 74) that will cause the companies to be able to disallow public knowledge of the
chemicals they use in their fracking site (why they find this even necessary blows my
mind;) if North Carolina passes this bill there is no telling what the companies will put
into their liquid substances! I cannot think of any other reason why a company would
find the need to disallow public knowledge of something like this other than the fact that
they want to cover up or hide something from us.
Although fracking does have these drawbacks, the concept as a whole is
something that is worth noting; the fact that fracking helps the United States produce a
whole three hundred thousand barrels of natural gas a day is something that everyone
should also be consider. With all of the drawbacks of fracking there is still some glimmer
of hope on the horizon. The good news is that there are definite ways to prevent the
harmful chemicals, and the thousands of gallons of the water that are being used up in the
process; the Canadians have already figured that one out! According to Inside Climate
News, a new emerging technology produced in Canada called LPG (liquefied propane
gas), is a new, waterless fracking method that would prevent all the pollution normal
fracking causes. Instead of using the water and chemicals like the fracturing sites do here,
it uses a gel like substance that vaporizes once used up thus leaving no traces of it being

used to begin with.

Ever since Dick Cheney pushed the Energy Policy Act in 2005 which simply
eliminated the gas companies liability and the Environmental Protection Agencys
regulatory oversight of it, according to Doug McClemont in ARTnews, fracking has been
an environmental mess. Even though fracking produces three hundred thousand barrels
of natural gas a day it is not ready yet to be used widely throughout the United States.
The amount of harm that it does for then environment does not balance out, or in my
opinion come near to balancing out the pros of it. The sheer harm that it does to its
surroundings, coupled with the documented health cases as stated earlier it doesnt come
close for me to think that it is ready for widespread usage. I will have my fingers crossed
that this new technology the Canadians have provided for us will find a patent here in the
United States and we will eventually start to use it. This new gel like system will provide
us with a cleaner more environmentally friendly way to extract natural gas; but until this
happens I cant see fracking growing any bigger than it already has.

Works Cited

Brino, Anthony. "New Waterless Fracking Method Avoids Pollution Problems,

But Drillers Slow to Embrace It." New Waterless Fracking Method Avoids Pollution
Problems, But Drillers Slow to Embrace It. 6 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.
Dong, Linda. "What Goes In & Out of Hydraulic Fracking." Dangers of Fracking.
Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
"Do the Additives Used in Hydraulic Fracturing Pose a Health Risk? | What Is
Fracking?" What Is Fracking. 15 Oct. 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.
"EARTHWORKS." EARTHWORKS. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.
"EPA." The Process of Hydraulic Fracturing. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.
"Fracking Tests near Blackpool 'likely Cause' of Tremors." BBC News. 2 Nov.
2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.

Howarth, Robert. "Natural Gas: Should Fracking Stop?" Nature. Nature

Publishing Group, 14 Sept. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2015
McClemont, Doug. "Fracking." ARTnews 110.2 (2011): 111. Print.
"Regulator: Fracking Causes Earthquakes." CNBC. 11 Apr. 2014. Web. 30 Mar.
2015.