Hydraulic Fracturing. That’s what. If you are not familiar, here’s the drive-thru version of what fracking all entails. A well is drilled several thousand feet into the earth, into rock formations that hold natural gas. A hydraulic system then pumps a chemical cocktail down the well into the rock formation. The pressure caused by the righteous chemical reaction that takes place deep within the earth fractures the surrounding rock formation and creates millions of little cracks for gas to flow into the well and up to the surface where we burn it to fry our bratwurst and heat our homes.
Fracking has come under very heavy scrutiny lately. The major concern being groundwater contamination either from the chemicals used in the process or natural gas entering groundwater through the fractures or improperly maintained wells. Either of these poses a threat to humans, livestock, and wildlife that rely on water from fracked areas. News crews are scurrying about, collecting footage of people lighting their faucet water on fire and mules that are losing their hair. A couple documentaries have even been made chronicling the environmental and human health threats of hydraulic fracturing.
My opinion on fracking is so radical, so utterly countercultural, that I should really restrain myself, alas. After ruminating this topic for some time, I posed this simple question; so what?
Fracking as we know it today was first performed in the 1940’s and has been used in thousands of natural gas wells all over the country ever since. Today it is hard to find a well that has not been fracked at some point in its life cycle. The sheer pervasiveness of this practice and the relative scarcity of cases where groundwater contamination has been linked to fracking begs the question; is all of the negative attention really warranted? I will concede that there is the potential to harm people and natural resources through fracking, but this is hardly grounds for wholesale condemnation. Instead, we should invest in this technology, improve it, make it safer, more controlled, and more productive. Fracking improved the productivity of gas wells by as much as nine times when it was introduced. The foreseeable future holds no promise of a reduction in energy demand or a viable substitute for natural gas. Simply put, gas is here to stay, and fracking is too. Imagine if we needed to drill 9 conventional wells to meet the productivity of one fractured well. Don’t forget to count the environmental toll brought on by all of the additional infrastructure. Water use is another reason that many are condemning fracking. David Yoxtheimer, a hydrogeologist at Penn State put fracking’s water use in perspective. He claims that every day roughly 9.5 billion gallons of water are consumed in the state of Pennsylvania. Of that, 1.9 million gallons (.002% if my math is right) is used for fracking. A five-fold increase in fracking would bring that figure up to 1% of the daily water usage.
Instead of crying wolf, let’s tame it. Fracking has come a long way and it still has a long way to go. Continued development of this technology will foster the safe production of reliable energy within the nation’s borders. The accidents and damages will always be front page news, fodder for fools says I. In my opinion, this is one of two viable, long-term energy sources this county has on the table. We really don’t have a choice at this point. Frack away.
spe.org/jpt/print/archives/2010/12/10Hydraulic.pdf
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/top-10-myths-about-natural-gas-drilling-6386593#slide-2
2 comments:
Very unpopular viewpoint, and cleverly written!
Well, overall, I am of the same opinion, despite the fact that I do not like what I have heard about the effects that it is seeming to have on the wetlands and the groundwater. In the end, it comes down to the lesser of the two evils- an economy, or the environment? If there were a way to improve it, that would be great, but at our current state of industry, that sort of thing can't wait and I suspect not many are willing to invest into better, more efficient and more environmental options at this point. You are correct in saying that fracking is here to stay, so long as we continue to search for natural gas as a fuel source.
My main sentiment, as mentioned above, is that we consider the immediate impacts to rare and precious ecosystems that are being impacted by the fracking industry, not so much the human welfare, because we seem to find ways to fix the problems that effect us directly rather quickly.
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