Hydraulic fracturing, more trouble than its worth?
Silke Mahardy, '13 | Staff Reporter
Issue date: 3/12/10 Section: Opinion
Until very recently, natural gas deposits embedded deep underground were impossible to extract. With a fairly new process developed by Halliburton, known as hydraulic fracturing, those untapped gas reserves can now be brought to the surface, but not without a potential cost to the environment and threat to the safety of drinking water.
The Marcellus Shale formation, stretching from New York to Tennessee, holding one of the world's largest known natural gas deposits trapped 6,000 - 10,000 feet below the surface is now open for development. Proponents of drilling believe that it will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and the jobs created and revenues collected by states and landowners signing on to the drilling will help our nation's ailing economy. Others believe that this may spur an environmental battle, the likes of which have not been seen in New York before.
Hydraulic fracturing involves sending up to three million gallons of water-per-well under extremely high pressure, down as far as 10,000 feet below the surface, and then horizontally into the shale formations. The water is mixed with sand and proprietary chemicals to aid in the extraction process. This highly pressurized mixture causes the shale to crack and tiny fissures to form. The sand then holds the fissures open allowing the gas to escape and flow back up to the surface to be piped or trucked away for processing.
Of grave concern to anyone living in areas of gas drilling where hydraulic fracturing, or fracking as it is commonly referred to, may occur should be the chemicals used in the process. As part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, written behind closed doors by then Vice President (and former chairman and CEO of Halliburton from 1995 - 2000) Dick Cheney and executives from within the energy industry, hydraulic fracturing was exempted from Safe Drinking Water Act regulation and consequently Environmental Protection Agency oversight. Over 340 toxic chemicals are known to be used for hydraulic fracturing. The health hazards of the chemicals used in the process are, on an almost daily basis, becoming clearer as more documentation comes out of western states where hydraulic fracturing is ongoing.
The Marcellus Shale formation, stretching from New York to Tennessee, holding one of the world's largest known natural gas deposits trapped 6,000 - 10,000 feet below the surface is now open for development. Proponents of drilling believe that it will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and the jobs created and revenues collected by states and landowners signing on to the drilling will help our nation's ailing economy. Others believe that this may spur an environmental battle, the likes of which have not been seen in New York before.
Hydraulic fracturing involves sending up to three million gallons of water-per-well under extremely high pressure, down as far as 10,000 feet below the surface, and then horizontally into the shale formations. The water is mixed with sand and proprietary chemicals to aid in the extraction process. This highly pressurized mixture causes the shale to crack and tiny fissures to form. The sand then holds the fissures open allowing the gas to escape and flow back up to the surface to be piped or trucked away for processing.
Of grave concern to anyone living in areas of gas drilling where hydraulic fracturing, or fracking as it is commonly referred to, may occur should be the chemicals used in the process. As part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, written behind closed doors by then Vice President (and former chairman and CEO of Halliburton from 1995 - 2000) Dick Cheney and executives from within the energy industry, hydraulic fracturing was exempted from Safe Drinking Water Act regulation and consequently Environmental Protection Agency oversight. Over 340 toxic chemicals are known to be used for hydraulic fracturing. The health hazards of the chemicals used in the process are, on an almost daily basis, becoming clearer as more documentation comes out of western states where hydraulic fracturing is ongoing.