Fracking Fury

            “Fracking Fury” by Janna Palliser is an in depth look at the risks and benefits value of fracking.  There are several pros to fracking.  First, hydraulic fracturing is a rapidly growing industry that promotes expansion and jobs.  Natural gas is also cleaner than its alternatives coal or oil.   Furthermore, if the US is more dependent upon our own fracking they will be less likely to purchase natural gas from foreign markets.  The largest con of fracking is the risks involved.  Regulations are not keeping up with production rates and the dangers are not as well-known with fracking as other fossil fuels.  Thus, there is growing concerns of the damage fracking is doing to humans, ecosystems, animals, and the drinking water. 

            The greatest concern for many is the question of what fracking does to drinking water.  Fracking can indirectly affect water sources through “surface discharge of wastewaters, depletion of drinking-water supplies, and methane migration” (21).  Fluid leakoff is caused by injecting fluids flowing to other areas.  Fluid leakoff can reach 70% of the injected volume which makes it possible to reach drinking water aquifers. 

            Pavillion, Wyoming has been extensively drilled for the past 20 years.  Recently the EPA found high levels of benzene, toluene, naphthalene, traces of diesel fuel, and at least one 2-Butoxyethanol in wells drilled deep into a water aquifer.  Waste waters from hydraulic fracking are not designed to remove fracking contaminants in the drinking water before it is into the rivers.

Palliser, Janna. "Fracking Fury." Science Scope 35.7 (2012): 20. Science Reference Center. Web. 1 Oct. 2012.