Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at high pressures in order to release natural gas from shale rocks by fracturing them. It takes an abundance of resources to create just one fracking well. Each gas well needs on average four hundred tanker trucks to carry water and supplies to the site. Fracking uses a great deal of water. Each fracturing job requires one to eight million gallons of water to complete it. Hydraulic fracturing has a huge effect on the environment primarily due to all the harmful chemicals used in the process. Some people don't want to ban fracking because it reduces imports of natural gas to america and it creates jobs, but many of these workers are being injured from working on the fracking site. In addition to poisoning its workers and the environment fracking is actually more expensive than traditional drilling.…
Thesis: There is major debate both for and against using the fracking method to extract natural gas from the ground, but I propose that the federal government establish, monitor, and regulate environmental and health risks, and then create a minimum standard which the states are required to follow. Background: In the 1940’s the Halliburton Corporation developed a process to revitalize well production and prolong the life of wells nearing the end of their production cycle. The fracturing process, called “fracking”, pumps a mixture of water and sand, along with some chemical additives, at high pressures to create additional fractures in the sedimentary rock.…
Hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking, is a 60 year old practice of pumping high pressure water into shale rock thousands of feet below the earth’s surface. The pressurized water is pumped through cement encased pipes at pressures reaching 9000 pounds per square inch. The treated water is forced into small cracks in the gas-rich shale rock, resulting in the breaking of the rock and the release of natural gas that would otherwise be unobtainable. Hydraulic fracturing is a safe, economically efficient way to drill for natural gas, create jobs, and lessen America’s dependency on foreign oil.…
Hydraulic Fracturing or fracking was first introduced in 1940s and has then been a key provider of natural gas and oil worldwide. Despite its expansion and customary use, fracking still poses many health and environmental concerns. During fracking, pressurized liquids are injected into drilled wells, which cause the surrounding rock to crack open allowing gas and oil flow through the fissures. Millions of gallons of water are used and a similarly large volume of waste water is generated. Most of the water is never restored and the stored waste water and fracking fluid can adversely affect the animals and vegetation around it. Along with the water, other chemicals are injected into the ground as far as 10,000 feet below the surface and enter groundwater, polluting drinking sources for many. Fracking may be a key provider of oil but this expensive, polluting, low energy-return process is not worth the loss of wildlife habitat, natural land and innumerable water resources.…
Fracking, also known as, hydraulic fracturing is the idea of using hydraulic pumps mixed with water, sand, and chemicals to break rocks apart at high pressures which then will release gasses. The chemicals used are not really known, but are said to be extremely hazardous to people, animals, and etc. The pumps on these machines use water from creeks as a water source. The sand that is used, is removed from the bottom of a local creek bed or can be manually added into the mixture. By removing it from a local creek bed, this could endanger local species that call the creek bed home.…
What is fracking, Fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside. Water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure which allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well. The process can be carried out vertically or, more commonly, by drilling horizontally to the rock layer and can create new pathways to release gas or can be used to extend existing channels. The term fracking refers to how the rock is fractured apart by the high pressure mixture.…
This paper explores the hydraulic fracturing process, exactly what it is, what the fracturing process does to the earth and the surrounding environment in addition, to the consequences. Hydraulic fracturing is fracturing of rock by pressurization. This process by which oil and natural gas can be forced from the earth. The hydraulic fracturing process takes millions of gallons of clean water, sand, chemicals and pumps them underground at high pressure to break apart rock to release gas and or oil. My research has led me to the discovery that there are as many proponents for fracking as that are those that oppose the process. One thing no-one can deny or easily hide is that once the damage is done and something has gone wrong, the evidence usually speaks volumes that this is not something we should be doing to our planet or its people. The diagram on page 3 outlines the process defined as fracking for an easier understanding of how invasive the process is to the environment.…
Fracking is the process of drilling and injecting fracking fluid into the ground at high pressures in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas. The fracking procedure is different than the usual oil technique used to get oil. First, they drill vertically into the ground. After drilling, they inject chemicals, water and sand into the well. When the shale rock is finally cracked they begin extracting the natural gas. There are more than 500,000 active natural gas wells in the U.S. (Dangers of Fracking). The materials required at a fracking site are large amounts of water and sand. A fracking site needs one to eight million gallons of water and about four million pounds of sand (Dangers of Fracking). The graph below shows the process of how fracking is done.…
Russell Gold’s book, The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World, is a great book for anyone who wants to know exactly what fracking is and the effects that come with it. Gold also reports in his book about the pros and cons of fracking and the impact it has had on our world.…
Fracking is just the common word for hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing refers to the procedure of creating fractures in rocks and rock formations by injecting a mixture of sand and water into the cracks to force underground to open further. This is commonly used on oil rigs and wells when searching for oil. I believe that fracking is helping us more than hurting us. These are the three reason I think it is helpful.…
Hydraulic fracturing, also termed hydrofracturing, hydrofracking, or simply fracking, is hotly debated for its economic and environmental impacts. Fracking is the process by which rock is fractured by a pressurized fluid containing water. chemicals and sand to access natural gas, petroleum and brine from great depths of the Earth’s surface. Fracking produces the economic benefit of more accessible hydrocarbons, not to mention the 2.5 million fracking related jobs that were recorded in 2012 worldwide, one million of which were in the United States alone (FracFocus: ECHO-EPA Violations). However, many fear the environmental effects. Risks include ground and surface water contamination, air and noise pollution, and an increase in seismic activity. Hazards to public health and the environment are yet to be discovered, because the first commercial application did not begin until the late 1940’s; however, hydraulic fractures have been recorded naturally throughout time (The Truth about…
Hydraulic fracturing is a 21st century method applied to extract gas from the rock bed in the Earth’s crust. It is commonly referred to as ‘fracking’. The process is carried out by breaking apart the rocks by the addition millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals preceded by the explosion of the rock bed. It is most commonly practiced in the United States; this technique hasn’t been applied in other countries a lot. It is predicted that this would be a solution the ever rising prices of oil and natural gas due to abundance of potential shale gas reserves. Hydraulic fracturing is not a method used for extraction of conventional natural gas.…
Hydraulic fracturing also known as fracking is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release built up natural gas from inside the ground. Hydraulic fracturings (fracking) exemption from the rules and regulations of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) needs to be repealed, and the new regulations of the Fracking Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act need to be enforced.…
Hydraulic fracking for some is a dream come true. For others, it is a nightmare. The act of extracting oil and natural gas from shale rock layers from within the earth has environmentalists pulling out their hair and politicians jumping for joy. The contamination of groundwater, air and land is constantly being brought up in debates. The government on the other hand argues that it only causes minimal harm and the benefits, like job creation and individual wealth, far out way the cost.…
The current practice of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) began in America in the late 1990‘s and has been wreaking havoc on the land and the lives of the American people since. In case you are unaware, fracking is the process well diggers use to extract natural gas and oil from the earth. They use pressurized mixture of water, sand, and chemicals to form veins (or fractures) in the rock in order for the natural gas or oil to escape.…