FRACKING, GREENIES ARE SEEING RED! (Frazer Chronicles)
I am not a tree hugger, nor an "environmental wacko," just a simple guy, one that increasingly is overwhelmed by the activities that seem to be continually changing as I gain weight and age on this planet that we call home. I am writing a 4 part article for several newspapers on the effects of iron mining and the good and the bad that it will have to the communities involved.
You see, that is the one thing that all exploration forgets to remember and address in their collect quest for whatever mineral that they are searching for. Coal, oil, lead, zinc, iron, gold or silver, there are good advantages as well as bad consequences whenever the basic endeavor is to extract a mineral from the ground.
Number 1, you weaken the ground at the extraction point as well as the ground above the working areas for whatever material is being taken from the earth. No matter what is said, what testimonials are delivered, this is one undeniable fact.
Number 2 water tables are always in danger of being polluted as well as rivers, lakes, streams that are relied upon for human consumption. During the Bush administration, in 2005, Fracking was exempted from the Safe Water Act, which means that the process is happening today with little or no regulations.
The number of natural gas wells numbers more then 3300, over just the past several years, with thousands more on natural gas companies "to do list." These wells have been drilled into the a shale formation that underlies much of New York, and Pennsylvania, and parts of Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia.
With the exception of West Virginia, these states are heavily populated and an "in depth study" is a necessity when an exploratory program the size that the gas industry seems to have initiated is already underway.
Hydraulic Fracturing, "fracking" is the process of initiating and subsequently propagating a fracture in a rock layer, employing the pressure of a fluid as the source of energy. The fracturing is done by a wellbore drilled into reservoir rock formations, in order to increase the extraction rates and ultimate recovery of oil and natural gas.
Fracking is simply a slang for the fracturing of rock formations, introducing what is called proppants into the fracture, "proppants are carefully designed and sized particles of sand or ceramic," to hold the fracture open. The objects are carefully sized for sphenicity to provide an efficient conduit for production from the reservoir to the wellbore.
Many fracturing chemicals can be toxic to humans and wildlife and include chemicals that can cause cancer. Usually between 50,000 and 350,000 gallons of various stimulation and fracturing fluids and up to 320,000 pounds of proppants are typically used in the early process of searching for oil and natural gas.
These fluids have the potential to contaminate millions of gallons of ground water. The tipping point between man and nature is so critical and can be so precarious, that great care needs to be used when injecting acid that actually breaks down rock formations, so that oil or gas can be easily forced to the surface and "harvested" by the oil and gas companies.
To give the reader an idea of exactly how strong these oil and gas drilling and harvesting companies are, picture a land owner who has leased his mineral rights to an oil and gas company, and he inquires about the chemicals that are being pumped into the earth, under his property. He will not, I repeat, "he will not be allowed that information." If the EPA asks the same question, "with all their power," they will not be allowed that information, the reason, "proprietary information."
The disposal of Fracking fluids, like with many industrial disposal rules can be fast and loose. With the oil and gas fracturing solutions, they are either transported to other well sites, or disposed of at whatever current site they are at. A cheaper way is to simply dilute the fluids with water and inject them into the surrounding area of the well.
"That can't be legal," you say, well.....it is.....and they do, inject many thousands of polluted gallons of the crap into the ground to co-mingle with good old ground water that we drink. The oil and gas companies, the EPA and the Federal Government are a funny bunch of ducks, each with an eye to money, in varying amounts.
A study released in May of this year concludes that fracking has seriously contaminated shallow ground water supplies in northern Pennsylvania with flammable methane, in other words, don't drink water and smoke, or take a shower with a lit cigarette.
Well blowouts and spills of fracturing fluids, again in Pennsylvania's Clearfield County sent more then 35,000 of fracturing fluid into the air and surrounding landscape in a forest area. People were evacuated, and the 2 companies involved with developing the well were ordered to cease operations in the state until an investigation clears them of any wrongdoing.
There also seems to be a link between fracking for oil and natural gas and seismic events as well as air quality and health issues, may also contribute to global warming and can cause crime rates, population booms and all of the things that accompany more people living in an are without the benefit of more roadways, better sewer systems as well as water.
The financial impact on a community may also be overstated by the oil and gas companies with regards to the number of years that activity will last, given the fact that companies may overstate the reserves, and actually how many local people will be employed.
The number of natural gas wells numbers more then 3300, over just the past several years, with thousands more on natural gas companies "to do list." These wells have been drilled into the a shale formation that underlies much of New York, and Pennsylvania, and parts of Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia.
With the exception of West Virginia, these states are heavily populated and an "in depth study" is a necessity when an exploratory program the size that the gas industry seems to have initiated is already underway.
Hydraulic Fracturing, "fracking" is the process of initiating and subsequently propagating a fracture in a rock layer, employing the pressure of a fluid as the source of energy. The fracturing is done by a wellbore drilled into reservoir rock formations, in order to increase the extraction rates and ultimate recovery of oil and natural gas.
Fracking is simply a slang for the fracturing of rock formations, introducing what is called proppants into the fracture, "proppants are carefully designed and sized particles of sand or ceramic," to hold the fracture open. The objects are carefully sized for sphenicity to provide an efficient conduit for production from the reservoir to the wellbore.
Many fracturing chemicals can be toxic to humans and wildlife and include chemicals that can cause cancer. Usually between 50,000 and 350,000 gallons of various stimulation and fracturing fluids and up to 320,000 pounds of proppants are typically used in the early process of searching for oil and natural gas.
These fluids have the potential to contaminate millions of gallons of ground water. The tipping point between man and nature is so critical and can be so precarious, that great care needs to be used when injecting acid that actually breaks down rock formations, so that oil or gas can be easily forced to the surface and "harvested" by the oil and gas companies.
To give the reader an idea of exactly how strong these oil and gas drilling and harvesting companies are, picture a land owner who has leased his mineral rights to an oil and gas company, and he inquires about the chemicals that are being pumped into the earth, under his property. He will not, I repeat, "he will not be allowed that information." If the EPA asks the same question, "with all their power," they will not be allowed that information, the reason, "proprietary information."
The disposal of Fracking fluids, like with many industrial disposal rules can be fast and loose. With the oil and gas fracturing solutions, they are either transported to other well sites, or disposed of at whatever current site they are at. A cheaper way is to simply dilute the fluids with water and inject them into the surrounding area of the well.
"That can't be legal," you say, well.....it is.....and they do, inject many thousands of polluted gallons of the crap into the ground to co-mingle with good old ground water that we drink. The oil and gas companies, the EPA and the Federal Government are a funny bunch of ducks, each with an eye to money, in varying amounts.
A study released in May of this year concludes that fracking has seriously contaminated shallow ground water supplies in northern Pennsylvania with flammable methane, in other words, don't drink water and smoke, or take a shower with a lit cigarette.
Well blowouts and spills of fracturing fluids, again in Pennsylvania's Clearfield County sent more then 35,000 of fracturing fluid into the air and surrounding landscape in a forest area. People were evacuated, and the 2 companies involved with developing the well were ordered to cease operations in the state until an investigation clears them of any wrongdoing.
There also seems to be a link between fracking for oil and natural gas and seismic events as well as air quality and health issues, may also contribute to global warming and can cause crime rates, population booms and all of the things that accompany more people living in an are without the benefit of more roadways, better sewer systems as well as water.
The financial impact on a community may also be overstated by the oil and gas companies with regards to the number of years that activity will last, given the fact that companies may overstate the reserves, and actually how many local people will be employed.
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