The lawsuits over fracking have brought it back into the news; as with any controversial topic, misinformation is just a Google search away.
It’s easy to find politicized commentaries with few supporting facts, but as educated college students we want something better. There are credible objections to fracking, but many attacks are exaggerated. Similarly, there are strong arguments in its favor—but it’s unreasonable to deny problems exist.
Fracking, formally called hydraulic fracturing, increases production from oil and gas wells. It involves pumping a high-pressure mix of water, chemicals and sand into the well. The fluid pressure creates tiny fractures in rock surrounding the well; the sand wedges into the cracks and keeps them open. These cracks let fluid move through the rock faster, so that more oil and/or gas flows into the well. The United State Geological Survey (USGS) website explains this technique.
Fracking is controversial because it can contaminate streams or groundwater. This happens when contaminants travel from the well into a shallow aquifer, or when chemical-laden water at the surface is spilled into streams. Although it can be difficult to definitively assign blame, the Pennsylvania department of environmental quality attributes more than 200 polluted water wells or springs to nearby fracking. In Wyoming, studies over polluted groundwater near oil and gas drilling in Pavillion are ongoing.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently studying health effects of fracking chemicals. A progress report on the study identified benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene as toxic chemicals usually present in fracking fluid. According to the USGS website, the problem can be mitigated by industry best practices for constructing wells and handling toxic chemicals.
Another issue is that fracking a well takes a lot of water. The USGS “Hydraulic Fracturing FAQs” webpage lists examples ranging from 1.5 to 15.8 million gallons for one fracturing of a well. To put these numbers in perspective, one million gallons of water would cover a football field to a depth of about 2.3 feet.
After fracking, some water stays deep underground, and the rest is too polluted to release into surface water. Environmental activists like the authors of the website “Dangers of Fracking” argue this uses too much fresh water in drought regions. The USGS describes ways to reduce this problem by treating wastewater or recycling fracking fluid.
There are benefits to fracking as well as problems, and energy independence is one of the most significant. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), fracking allowed the U.S. to be the top oil and gas producing country in 2014. This means depending less on countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia. Currently, the US economy relies on oil and gas for gasoline, industrial fuel and about 28 percent of electricity generation.
Most conversations about fracking involve politics and economics, but science still has a role. It can provide facts about both costs and benefits of fracking that help people decide whether to oppose it or how to regulate it. Without this understanding, the debate hinges on ideology.
