![]() Scientists, regulators and leaders of Texas’ energy industry must identify and understand the environmental risks of shale oil and gas drilling before air pollution or water contamination leads to tighter restrictions that could ultimately derail the rebounding industry, the leader of a broad new study says. 2017 to an estimate of nearly 1.5 million barrels a day in Oct., making it the second largest oilfield after the Permian, according Department of Energy data. The oilfield has rebounded from a low of 1.1 million barrels of oil a day in Aug. In order to improve our understanding of the impacts of hydraulic fracturing, it is crucial to increase public and transparent water-quality monitoring before, during, and after the fracking process.A few hundred miles southeast of the Permian the Eagle Ford Shale has seen its production and rig counts steadily increasing. It is extremely complicated to examine fracking-related groundwater contamination, as many of the compounds used are not commonly analyzed in commercial labs or not publicly disclosed. Unfortunately, shallower wells are likely to increase in frequency because they are less expensive. ![]() The risk of contamination is elevated if the fracturing site is shallow due to the closer proximity to the aquifer. This is concerning in light of a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), which concluded that 37% of all recorded fracking wells stimulated in 2014 were located within 2 kilometers of at least one domestic groundwater well. One study found that chemicals migrated up to three kilometers from hydraulically fractured wells into groundwater supplies. At high enough concentrations, methanol can trigger irreversible nerve damage and blindness when consumed in sufficient quantities.ĭrinking water wells located near hydraulic fracturing projects are more likely to be exposed to contaminants from on-site spills and project failures. Recent studies have determined that methane/methanol (a highly flammable gas used in the fracking process) concentrations in drinking-water supplies are six times higher in wells within one kilometer of a natural gas well. How does hydraulic fracturing contaminate drinking water wells?įracking contaminates drinking water when the chemicals used to fracture rocks seep into nearby groundwater sources. The environmental impacts of the chemicals used for gas and oil production. ![]() Groundwater quality before, during, and after a fracking operation.The integrity of wells (both active and decommissioned).The frequency and severity of associate spills and leaks.It is also challenging to assess and quantify the risks of hydraulic fracturing to groundwater resources due to the lack of consistently catalogued information regarding the following: While the likelihood that any of the mechanisms will occur is low, scientists’ understanding of hydraulic fracturing risks remains limited. ![]() There are a variety of mechanisms throughout the fracking process that can potentially lead to groundwater aquifer contamination. In fact, a 1987 report concluded that drinking water contamination had been detected since 1984. This was suspected for decades and eventually proven true. Hydraulic fracturing can and does contaminate groundwater. What does fracking mean for your drinking water? This approach allows natural gas, petroleum, and brine flow more freely through the cracks, which makes the gas and oil easier to extract. The process consists of cracking deep rock formations through the high-pressure injection of fracking fluid (water containing sand or other proppants suspended via thickening agents). Simply put, fracking is a well stimulation technique. We, at SimpleLab, have created an overview about what hydraulic fracturing could mean for your drinking water. To this day, fracking remains a highly controversial practice–with opponents arguing that the benefits are outweighed by the public health and environmental impacts (water contamination, air and noise pollution, increased seismic activity, etc.).These concerns are magnified when fracking occurs near groundwater wells (which supply drinking water to more than 45 million people). In fact, natural gas production via hydraulic fracturing has increased more than 10-fold since 2000. Since the early experiments, over 1.7 million fracking projects have been carried out on gas and oil wells in the United States–and the industry has grown rapidly. Today, it’s a well-worn approach to natural gas production. Hydraulic fracturing–colloquially known as “fracking”–began as an experiment in 1947.
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