Hydraulic fracturing or fracking is a technique that involves typical mixing of water with chemicals and sand, under high pressure. The mixture is injected into wellbore to create small fractures where fluids such as petroleum, gas, brine water and uranium-bearing solution might migrate to the well. The hydraulic pressure is removed from such well and small proppant grains are used in holding the fractures open when the rock achieves equilibrium. This technique is common in wells for tight gas, shale gas, coal seam gas and tight oil. Such well stimulation is carried out once in the well’s life time hence enhances well productivity and fluid removal. Hydraulic fracturing has been in use since 1940s with Michigan having more than 12,000 wells that are using the process to release trapped gas and oil. By 1988, there were over one million hydraulic operations being carried out and, since then, the industry has continued to grow.
Whether or not hydraulic fracturing has harmful impacts on the local water supplies is something that has been debated heavily with numerous reported cases of the contaminated ground water. However, it has been difficult to narrow down to exact cause with one side blaming the process and the proponents finding external issues that are unrelated to fracking as causing the contamination. Regardless of the benefits that the process brings about, the health and environmental issues surrounding hydraulic fracturing has drawn protests from some communities and activists with the most concern that has been publicized being groundwater contamination with natural gas byproducts and methane gas. Industries concerned have however responded through stating that the whole process is safe and methane cannot travel through thousands of feet between the wells and aquifers. A contention has been that the contamination occurred prior to the process.
Opponents of the process main concern is on the potential impacts to the environment which includes ground water contamination, depletion of fresh water, noise pollution, risk onto the air quality, migration of the hydraulic fracturing chemicals and gases to the surface, contamination of surface by flow-back and spills and the consequent health effects. Main concern is on lack of a long-term effect research into effects that the chemicals that are used in fracking have on human beings and environment that surrounds it together with some grey areas in the industry regulation. Some of the environmental regulations exempt hydraulic fracturing practices from having to follow some Acts like The Clean Water Act, through excluding the permits required in discharge of storm water from the activities of gas and oil construction which other companies abide by. There is regulation by The Safe Drinking Water Act on the injection into the ground of materials, but makes exclusion on those that are related to hydraulic fraction, as long as there is no use of diesel.
Lack of regulations has even been acknowledged by even those in the industry with lawmakers from both federal and state working on establishment of a system of drilling rules and regulations, and most of the gas and oil companies have acknowledged that the environment maintenance and prevention leaks are important for them as well. Personnel in the public health sector are equally worried about long-term untested results on people who reside near hydraulic fracturing sites because of potential for fracking chemicals to create water or air pollution (Dahm et al). There was a study that was conducted by SWPA-EHP on people living near Washington County, near Marcellus shale hydraulic fracturing site and display symptoms that are consistent with the toxic exposure to the chemicals. The study showed that twenty seven people displayed poisoning symptoms that included irritations and rashes since the beginning of hydraulic fracturing .The number might seem small but any medical case requires use of only candidates who fall under the specific criteria, like exposure opportunity and symptoms timing since the beginning of drilling are normally considered as being part of group so as to prevent the use of numerous unrelated patients from the study. A good example is when in New York City, there was discovery of West Nile Virus. With only five victims of the virus in a case series, it was considered a problem, therefore with 27 people in the hydraulic fracturing case there is need for a cause of concern.
Researchers from Duke University on 24th June 2013 gave a report on detection of methane in the Pennsylvanian drinking water and further claims in the report that the bubby methane’s serious contamination is more prevalent in wells that are within a radius of one kilometer from the gas drilling sites. It is difficult to accomplish the injection without accompanying stages. There can be faulty pipelines and wellbores construction or possible damage during the process, hence allowing fluids to flow in the aquifers. Evaporation of waste water from ponds allows for evaporation of volatile chemicals while overflowing of the ponds with rain water might result to runoff getting its way into the ground water systems. Due to these reasons, the hydraulic fracturing has recently come under international scrutiny where some countries have even banned or suspended the process all together (Jackson et al). However, there has been recent lifting of the ban by some countries like the United Kingdom and have opted on focusing on regulations rather than outright prohibition. Though it first appeared in 1903, it was used for commercial purposes in 1949 for the first time. Natural gas has so far shown promise as energy alternative to oil, however there has been controversies that have surrounded it for many years over environmental impacts.
Currently, there is more efficient use of the unconventional reservoir, which has been an eye opener for the industry with advancement in technology - mostly being with proppants, fluids and treatment design and together with the horizontal drilling. This makes it possible to access valuable shale resources. Furthermore, there has been a steady increase in the size of the wells. So far, there has been no documentation of environmental problems caused by the process. This emboldens proponents of the hydraulic fracturing process, who mainly point to economic benefits gotten from vast amount of hydrocarbons extracted through the process. The hydrocarbons would be inaccessible without the process.
In an attempt to address the environmental concerns, engineers and geologists have for the past four decades been involved in development of a process that is more economically efficient. Reusing of the old wells is one of the strategies used to conserve energy; this has led to effective fracturing of around 35,000 unconventional wells annually, hence imposing minimal damaging impacts on the nearby reservoirs for groundwater. Reuse of old wells has consequently improved the hydraulic fracturing environmental impact, but the process still remains to be far from being environmental friendly.
However, the documented gas or oil wells contamination cases are not due to fracturing but from mishandling of flow-backs and faulty well heads which can possibly occur in any drilling process for oil and gas . In addition, it is essential to point out that the fracturing and drilling process has further been made more efficient and more environmental friendly through the use of horizontal drilling. For instance, a company can drill numerous subsurface horizontal wells from a single vertical well. The horizontal wells that are thousands of feet underground use fracturing due to the tight geological formations. With no use of fracturing, gas would remain as unrecovered natural resource. About 99.5% of the fluids that are used in fracturing are water and proppants like sand with only a fraction of 0.5% of the fluids being chemicals that are mostly used in order to avoid productivity loss in the well-prevent fouling. Injection of these fluids is normally done thousands of feet below aquifer and fracturing event is just a minor part in harvesting of natural resource and lasts a few hours . However, such a process carries a risk hence there is need for proper care when handling flowbacks from well production as the flowbacks primarily contain brine and deep formation of other fluids, which must be handled properly and disposed.
There are numerous cases that prove that hydraulic fracturing does not always have to pollute ground water. In Ohio, for example, there are two factors that have been used in supporting the idea that hydraulic fracturing does not contaminate ground water. The first is the consideration of the lithostatic overburden where there is putting of all the rocks underneath the earth under pressure. When there is hydraulic fracturing of a well, the pressure is basically put on the wellbore and it impossible to create hydraulic pressure that is needed in the wellbore as well as in the reservoir rock so as to create fracture which would extend into ground water source. Secondly, frac gradient-pressure gradient where there is break down of specific formation and fluid acceptance (Spellman 25). In Ohio, there is a frac gradient difference between reservoir rocks and the rocks that are close to ground water resources making infiltration into ground water source impossible.
Recently, there has been a study which was conducted at Austin by the University of Texas. The study asserted that there is no direct contamination by hydraulic fracturing on the ground water sources . The study additionally found out that the natural gas, which is found in some of the water wells in shale formations, can be possibly traced to the natural sources and most likely were present even before the oil and gas operations took place. There is also negatively decided media coverage on hydraulic fracturing with few of the new reports including the scientific research on the hydraulic fracturing process.
There is need for clean energy production and environmental protection but the current demands for energy cannot be realistically met without fossil fuels because without this energy life could end up being brutal and short. Regulations requiring for the fluids to be kept in secondary contaminated tanks instead of using open ponds should be strictly adhered to. The leaders in gas industry have tout major benefits of the natural gas over other sources of energy like coal due to its ability in burning cleaner. It has also resulted to positive economic growth role. By use of hydraulic fracturing, newfound reservoirs of the nation can help in offsetting economic cost of oil importation. Garbage trucks, delivery trucks and some of the long-haul trucks have began to switch to the cheaper natural gas and away from the oil-delivered diesel with every company applying for permits of exporting this natural gas to Asia and Europe. In the U.S., according to the employment and economic contribution of Shell gas, oil and gas industries support 9.2 million jobs and in ten years period, a million new oil and gas industry jobs could be created.
Following claims on ground water contamination from environmental interests and residents, the EPA recently conducted water tests series in Dimock, Pennsylvania and the results found that there was no evidence of the well waters causing serious problems on residents in question. There is need for transparency by industries where they must disclose their nature of the chemicals that are used during hydraulic fracturing process the industries should also routinely measure the drilling impact that the operations have on the water and air quality and ensure that the information is made publicly available. The biggest water quality risk arises from the huge water volumes that are brought to the surface along with natural gas. One well site can produce millions of gallons that are laced with the naturally occurring radioactive elements such as radium and storage of such water in the containment ponds on surface presents more risks and the better option is by having it recycled through underground injection as part of drilling loop.
Though most of environmental and health questions that surround hydraulic fracturing are unresolved, it is difficult for one too say with certainty that the practice (in any quantifiable terms) is worth it. However, economic impacts derived from the process are understandable. Nevertheless, hydraulic fracturing is not viable in the long run though it produces cleaner and more efficient gas. Having that in mind, it is essential, however, to note that the nation’s energy needs can be shouldered by alternative clean energies like solar and wind. Due to this inevitable gap, and no better choices being made available, benefits of natural gas utilization as energy resource is too remarkable to be simply halted entirely. Instead, there should be implementation of baseline federal regulation to ensure that environmental concerns and basic safety about the process are genuinely addressed. The rules need not to hamper, but encourage the industry’s further innovations that will focus on minimizing the negative impact of hydraulic fracturing.
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