Fracking contaminates drinking water. One claim is that fracking creates cracks in rock formations that allow chemicals to leach into sources of fresh water. The problem with this argument is that the average shale formation is thousands of feet underground, while the average drinking well or aquifer is a few hundred feet deep. Separating the two is solid rock. This geological reality explains why EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, a determined enemy of fossil fuels, recently told Congress that there have been no “proven cases where the fracking process itself has affected water.”
Fracking fluids likewise fail to match the “toxic” and “cancerous” opprobrium alleged by anti-drilling campaigns. More than 99.5 percent of the fluids consist of water and sand. The other 0.5 percent is chemicals to keep sand particles suspended in the liquid, fight bacterial growth and improve gas production.
Although industrial chemicals once were used, almost all of today’s are vegetable oil and chemicals used in cheese, beer, canned fish, dairy desserts, shampoo and other food and cosmetic products.
http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/23/facts-not-fears-should-govern-fracking/?page=all
Isn’t pipe run down a shaft as well, to carry fracking liquid past the water table? The idea being of course to send the liquid down where it is wanted, and not lose any at higher levels. Some people might fear that like overfilling a bottle, frack liquid backs up around the well shaft to the level of the water table. I suppose frack liquid could be pumped in to that point, but it would be way, way more than needed. Adding harmless tracers to the frack liquid and watching for their appearance in the water table ought to answer that question with finality.