Fracking: Untangling Fact From Fiction

Very interesting indeed.

I would imagine that if fracking can relieve stress situations in underground rocks, it may eventually be possible to frack near where earth plates are moving, usually causing big earthquakes, can be changed by fracking to become a series of tiny earthquakes instead of a big one.......

California should take a close look at this, as should Japan and Turkey for example.....if they are lucky, simultaneously, extra deposits of gas and old may also be discovered!

What is unmentioned is the fact that toxic chemicals are injected into earth during the fracking process. These then mix with ground water, poisoning the aquifer in the process.

So, you have poisoned ground water and more stealth earthquakes to contend with.

The only benefit of fracking is the additional profits made by the petroleum companies doing the fracking.

The people who get sick from drinking contaminated water and being crushed in an earthquake will have to pay their own medical bills, or spend thousands of dollars they don't have paying lawyers.

The fricking frackers, just say, "prove we did it" we've got more lawyers than you can ever afford.

This is a major, major fraud being carried out by big business, and supported by government.

Got a list and a percentage of those chemicals used?

I do. http://fracfocus.org/chemical-use/what-chemicals-are-used

Both propaganda pieces you site are published by chemical/energy companies, or agencies funded by them.

You can't expect me to believe that BS, can you?

I understand where your livelihood comes from, oil, gas and petroleum companies. If you drink the cool-aid, you have to talk the talk, no matter how distorted.

Let's just say that I don't trust big business to tell me the truth and I don't trust the government officials, mostly paid by big business to tell me the truth, either.

We can at least agree that greed is driving this and not some inherent desire to make the earth a better place.

We still haven't established who financed the information in those links.

Taking whatever pops up first may be your first error. Regardless of what people think, the internet is not an infallible source of information.

Since you are the type of person who dumps chemicals down the drain "without second thought", I would count your testimony as biased from the get-go.

Proper documentation appears to be an internet search away for you, so I recommend searching for the film "Gasland". It may not be proper, but it is documentation.

No cute blushy smilies or apologies from me. Fracking is BS and it poisons the environment, but if it's the best this country can come up with then I guess we are stuck with it.

Fair enough. Got any creditable links to proof of fracking poisoning the environment?

I am also expecting reasonable comparisons to other industrial, commercial, and private actions that release the same types of pollutants as well and in what volumes.

Its part of playing fair you know.

Not handy...

I also don't have readily available info to prove that smoking causes cancer, transmission of HIV through tears is possible, alcoholism is a disease, or that being abused as a child results in a violent adult...

What we do have available to society are accounts from individuals who can put logic to work and state that everything in their communities was perfectly fine and normal until the fracking started nearby. Now, people can light a match under their kitchen faucet and watch it burn, and the water which has been tested by local "competent" authority is deemed unfit for consumption...human or otherwise. Coincidentally it contains not only fracking chemicals, but the exact material which the fracking is inteded to release.

Remember that for a lot of these farmers this is the same water which would be used to irrigate crops which are put up for resale and possibly consumed by you and your family. The federal gov't did/does the same thing with superfund sites and had animal testing done afterwards to see if the meat was tainted.

I put "competent" in quotes because the people testing the waters are the same ones who had a hand in approving the industrial practice in small communities dotting the eastern and midwestern US. They'll say it's safe to frack, if you complain they'll test your water and say that it's not safe to drink and condemn your house because it's not safe to live in, then they'll approve the sale of the land to a mining company.

It's a vicious circle lined with avarice and dishonesty.

So that's a no then? Conjecture based on poorly defined results with no rel before and after documentation to support it other that "I never noticed it before but then I never actually looked before either." based accounts.

Around here well water testing has been done and documented since the 1940's on countless wells. I had my well drilled in 1999 and even then they did a water quality and chemical analysis before they signed it off as being potable grade water.

BTW I also have natural gas in my water also, same with most everyone's, and all of these wells have been here far longer than any fracking work has been done.

The issue of well water contamination has mostly been debunked. There were some ludicrous YouTube videos showing water catching fire as it came out of a spigot, but this was a hoax. The EPA, under Obama, as found no evidence that, when proper drilling techniques are used, fracking will contaminate drinking water. The 'fear', though, has already been created in the minds of some people (like one of my brothers) so no matter what I say to him and no matter what studies I cite, he still has that fear that fracking is going to ruin his well.

The other concern, which is a bit more justified, is that fracking may trigger earthquakes. I think so far the earthquake-fracking correlation is for the post-fracking process, when the waste water is pumped back into the ground. That's when low level earthquakes have occurred. But these have all been really low level, like 2s or 3s on the Richter scale, which is barely above the background 'noise' of the earth rumbling and shaking that goes on all the time. This aspect does deserve continuous study and there needs to be some preparations made should real damage occur as a result of fracking.

Sadly, Matt Damon has a film that will be coming out soon that (from what I've heard) is going to exploit these fears and ignore the studies of geologists to sensationalize the worries of the anti-fracking crowd. It has taken years to get over the damage to the nuclear power industry that was caused by the movie 'The China Syndrome'. I wouldn't be surprised if Damon's movie also triggers that level of ignorant fear. Hucksters that fear-monger never go broke.

Here's a fascinating video that puts into perspective, the relative strengths of earthquakes. Note that the video begins with the level 5.8 earthquake that occurred in Virginia (USA) in 2011, and which did only mild damage, though it surprised a lot of people.

Perspective - Earthquake Intensity

Gaia needs to become a well-oiled machine.

If "waste" fluids are injected into the San Andreas fault, the plates can slide easier, making 1000 Richter 2 quakes instead of one Richter 9. There, doesn't that feel better?

the chemicals used for fracking seems to be a well guarded secret. i doubt if the the govermt even knows what being pumped down the hole.

It will be the usual F*ck up with the water table being polluted and a host of unforseen dire consequences, gas price won't fall and some industries/people/politicians will make a fortune.
After the f*uck up is exposed, they will all wring their hands and shed crocodile tears.
The will say it was unforseeable and call yet another public equiry run by their mates for huge wages at vast public expense.

To sumarise... we're sgafted by big businesss and politics...
No change there then...
BTW I've allready E-mailed my MP with a slightly toned down version of the above
Del
<click... cynical mode off>

I still am not armed with enough information to think that fracking is okay or not. My gut tells me that there are unforeseen consequences coming.

That said................and speaking of politicians and the rich, since it's going to be done, can we put a stop to the complete rip off scam that we call the global carbon exchange?

At some point, Goldman Sachs has enough money.

I'm so sick of government BS. They are signing CO2 legislation with one hand, and fracking permits with the other. There's nothing on this earth that's filthier than a politician.

From: http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/07/26/fracking-foe-fears-prove-foolish-again/
"Whatever its ultimate ecological impact, the combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling promises to dramatically increase domestic oil and gas reserves, drive down energy prices and fundamentally transform the energy sector."
In other words, "Drill baby drill?"

These conversations never really lead anywhere. Lets face it..............fossil fuel is like heroin to the junkie.

We can tell ourselves a million times, in a million different ways that we're going to quit, but when an easy score pops up, there we are, rigging up the works to get at it. We ain't quitting.

That doesn't mean we have to use a dirty needle to do the deed.

OK, It's moot, I know. It's also bedtime here in la la land.

i live near a few dozen wells, but what the hell. let them use any fracking fluid they what.

I feel better now. Thanks.