Gas Fracking

This is a paper I wrote for one of my previous environment classes.  Gas fracking is a "hot topic" for energy politics. 

NATURAL GAS FRACKING: An environmental aspect of drilling for alternative energy

A growing global concern in the hunt for alternative energy is hydraulic-fracturing for natural gas.  Natural gas currently supplies about 25% of the U.S.’s energy, but the goal is 50% by 2035.⁴   This gas resides in shale thousands of feet below the surface, and is a great energy source.  The idea of fracturing is pumping a water mixture down to break up the rock in order for the gas to be released.  It is occurring world-wide, for example in Sydney, Australia, and also locally in the Marcellus Shale located predominately under Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio.  The environmental aspect of this issue is mostly concerned with the possible contamination of ground water.

(Image from Environmental Health Perspectives ⁴)

Hydro-fracturing, in short fracking, is when a pump is drilled down thousands of feet into the ground in these gas pocket areas.  At high pressure, millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals are rushed down which cause the rock to crack or fracture.  This then allows the gas to escape and be susceptible for harvest.  The chemicals in the mixture include benzene, toluene, and xylene along with other harmful chemicals including methane.³   While most is flushed out, and the majority of the mixture is sand and water, about one-third of this chemical-laced mixture stays underground.²   So, these chemicals are below very close to the groundwater supply.  Once an aquifer, or water supply for that matter, is contaminated it is an irreversible act; it cannot be cleaned.²   There is debate, though, about whether the drilling causes groundwater contamination.  Currently in Australia, the coal-seam gas industry wants to drill 40,000 wells by the year 2030 in Queensland.  Already, there have been three definite wells of which carcinogens were found.²

The Marcellus Shale has about 500 tcf of natural gas in its reserves, and the gas companies would be able to extract about 50 tcf.¹   Although relatively small compared to the total, this could supply energy for the entire East coast for fifty years.¹  The Delaware River basin and watershed, of which this shale is below, provides drinking water for approximately seventeen million people stretching from Philadelphia to New York City.¹  This is a dilemma.  Many reports have been made about the negative health effects on people in the drilling areas.  Sicknesses, flammable water, and spontaneous combustion are the majority of the problems.  The gas companies do not believe the drilling is the cause, and maintain it is natural.  The people, however, had tests done before and after the drilling and the results were contaminated water and dangerous flammability.³  The EPA is working to pass an act through Congress which will allow for more research of fracking on water quality and public health, and would make the gas companies reveal their chemicals being used in the mixture to the public.⁴

Natural gas fracking creates jobs,¹ which in this economic climate are much needed.  The gas companies would also pay land holders over the Marcellus Shale approximately $100,000 for the rights to drill.³  More research is needed, but reports are being made about the growing sickness of the people from contaminated water wells after the drilling.  Is the stimulation of the economy worth the health of the people?  Is the benefit of “cleaner” energy larger than the cost of public health?  There is some debate about whether natural gas is actually cleaner than fossil fuels.  While it may burn cleaner, the process of extracting it is as bad as any other fossil fuel, sometimes worse than CO₂.³

Sources:

¹  "Natural Gas "Fracking" Debate Draws Hundreds." CBS News. CBS, 14 Sept. 2010. Web. 12 Nov. 2010. <http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/13/national/main6862186.shtml>.

 

²  Quinn, Karl. "Fracking Hell: Busting the natural gas myth." The Sydney Morning Herald. N.p., 13 Nov. 2010. Web. 12 Nov. 2010. <http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/fracking-hell-busting-the-natural-gas-myth-20101112-17qxw.html>. 

³  "New Film Investigates "Fracking" for Natural Gas." Science Friday. National Public Radio. NPR, 18 June 2010. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127932770>.

⁴  Manuel, John. "EPA Tackles Fracking." Environmental Health Perspectives (2010): 9 pars. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. <http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.118-a199>.