Fracking Should Be Banned

Fracking: Is It Worth the Damage It Causes to The
Environment and Why It Should Be Banned from The United States.
Imagine if Uranium, Lead, Formaldehyde, and Mercury contaminated your drinking water. Fracking is harmful to humans and the environment. It is important that fracking is stopped because up to 600 carcinogens are used in fracking fluid (Earth Works). What is fracking? Fracking is the process of extracting natural gas from the Earth. It starts by drilling several kilometers deep into the ground. Then the drill is turned horizontally and drills for an additional kilometer. After the hole is drilled large amounts of extremely toxic fluid are then ejected into the earth at extremely high pressures. Subsequently, fissures are created
The amount of water that is used is not environmentally friendly. The large amount of water used in fracking a year is equal to 80 cities with a population of 50 thousand water consumption annually (Earth Works). Once the water is used it becomes waste water and is most commonly left in open pits to evaporate. Currently there are not a lot of ways to contain the wastewater; however, some companies believe that using deep well injection as a method of disposal are actually quite wrong. In the US some fracking companies dispose their wastes in deep wells that lie underneath the surface. It has even been directly related to causing earthquakes. This happens in several states in the United States, however, Pennsylvania has outlawed the use of deep well injection (Easton). As a result, the fracking companies are forced to transport the wastewater by road. “To haul water off-site for disposal over the 20-year life of a hydraulic fracturing well-project, it was estimated to cost $160 million (includes trucking costs, water disposal costs and labor)” (Easton). It is evident that there are no safe ways currently developed for disposing fracking wastewater. Subsequently, there have been several recorded accidents in the U.S that were caused by improper disposal of waste
Colborn and her co-authors compared the potential health impacts of volatile chemicals…They found that “far more of the volatile chemicals (81%) can cause harm to the brain and nervous system. Seventy-one percent of the volatile chemicals can harm the cardiovascular system and blood, and 66% can harm the kidneys” (Earth Works) The data presented above shows just how dangerous the chemicals are in fracking fluid to humans. It also shows how important it is that government makes sure the waste water is not left to evaporate and potentially harm humans. Without a way to properly dispose of wastewater it is clearly evident that fracking poses a danger to the environment, therefore it should be banned because of the risks it poses to environment and