Fracking Risks and Reality

This was an informative and well written report. Apparently there are authentic cautions about fracking along with some misdiagnosed scare stories.

Fracing hasbeen around for years and is well understood. It has been considered a fairly mature technology by scientists and engineers. Now comes the Flat Earth Society... Emotion suddenly rules reality. I think no good will come of this.

The main issue is that is have a small number of drilling companies that are fracking incorrectly causing issues like natural gas in water lines (burning tap water) and contaminating whole town's drinking water. The case of a few rotten apples ruining the whole bunch. In PA because of a few high publicized incidents whole regions now will not allow the drilling companies to start.

If there are operators doing the wrong thing then it should be banned until there is proper licencing and policed regulation of the practice.I think the question is if something goes wrong because it is done incompetently and you do end up contaminating the ground water how can you fix it. If the answer is you cant then it is not a safe sustainable industry and it should be banned.

There is already way to much in the way of regulations, procedures, permits, oversight, etc. The majority of the field follows them. Two contractors where caught not following them, so now the whole industry should be shut down? This could be in any industry healthcare, banking, pharmaceutical, etc. You don't kill an entire industry because of a couple of bad individual contractors you punish those individuals, which is what is happening. But the non-understanding public over-reacts as usual.

I dont neccesarily disagree but does the return justify the risk, most industry contains risk and is therefore regulated to try to minimise the risk and remove substandard operators from the equation. Most companies businesses dont set out to deliberate harm, but if as a consequence of a business decision the ground water that people rely on is contaminated for the forseable future it raises the question of should we be rolling dice in this area.As we know some corporate business people are morally corrupt when it comes to making decisions. eg we can make 20 squillion from this, if it goes belly up we are exposed to 5 sqilliion of liabilities etc the net gain is 15 squillion lets do it.

The whole idea of mining is to remove something from the earth for beneficial use by man. Name one product out there that doesn't have something in it that was mined. If a company goes belly up they have bonds that will pay for all reclamation work that needs to be done. In the permits it is written that drinking wells within x number of miles will be fix or replaced. The companies that have caused issues in PA have been fined, have to correct the issues, and are being banned from continuing.

"In the permits it is written that drinking wells within x number of miles will be fix or replaced."

Be clear here. If it happens within six months, it is presumed to be caused by the drilling/fracking. After that six months, causation must be proved, a virtual impossibility. The water cannot be fixed, it may fix itself with time. The driller was made to provide bottled water or pipe to a supply.

Latest on Cabot Oil Settlement with PA.

PA changed tack because a Republican governor, complete with pro-driller policies, takes over next year.

The permits in place can not be change and the way PADEP works it takes at least 5 years for their policies to be change so I don't see any major changes to weaken the present regulations. Remember they still have to meet EPA clean water and air regulations also. DEP just up-dated all of theirs this year.

Incorrect.

The mines I work at the permits are written that any thing happens in their life time all wells within a 15 miles radius need to be fixed or replaced. The mine site hasn't hit water yet we where forced to re-drill 6 wells last two years because of the draught. Drilling site we own are set up the same way. Any contamination cause or not caused by us must be repaired or a new water source must be found.