Drilling for natural gases has been under a lot of fire lately about many different issues such as creating earthquakes, but a new debate has arisen concerning the millions of gallons of water being used to extract the gases. The process for drilling for natural gases involves pumping high volumes of water and other chemicals into rock at high pressures to release the gas. That all sounds good to me but what happens to the water that is now contaminated with chemicals and gases once the drilling is done?
Following pressure to fix this problem, drilling companies have started trying to recycle the water being used yet in the past 18 months less than half of the water used has actually been recycled. This may seem like a big problem but is not the biggest problem, which is the water left behind. As the water is being removed it leaves behind a salt or sludge highly concentrated with radioactive material and other contaminants dangerous to people and all other life if it reaches the waterways. Reports have shown that in Williamsport, PA. Between 10-40% of water injected into the ground will resurface in the next 2 weeks. “The wastewater that comes up from the well will likely increase to some degree in many contaminants such as salts and possibly radium and other radionuclide’s with each new fracking, but the data is very limited on this issue so not much is known,” said Radisav Vidic, an environmental engineering professor and drilling expert at the University of Pittsburgh(33).
Over the past year over 50 millions of gallons of contaminated water is unaccounted for because of weak government regulation of fracking and with the information Radisav has researched this can cause the environment massive problems. I believe that without changes in legislation to get regulations on this recycling problem our water supply will not last long and many have the same view and are getting the research to prove it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02gas.html?pagewanted=2&bl
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02gas.html?pagewanted=2&bl
Dear Shane,
ReplyDeleteThis is a pretty scary subject. I feel it is one that is often overlooked when oil drilling is mentioned. Not many people think about the small amount of freshwater we have remaining.
"As the water is being removed it leaves behind a salt or sludge highly concentrated with radioactive material and other contaminants dangerous to people. . ." this is crazy! I had no idea that some of the contaminated material was actually left behind! This needs to be fixed quickly before damage to animals or ourselves is done.
"Over the past year over 50 millions of gallons of contaminated water is unaccounted for. . ." I had no idea so much water was used for the fracking process. It's sad to think that with all the freshwater being used to crack the Earth, there's millions of people around the world with no freshwater at all.
Thanks for the great read. I look forward to reading more on your captivating subjects.
Springbok