Posted on 11/17/2014 10:04:13 AM PST by Kaslin
B-I-N-G-O. They nailed it. Finally, an unbiased academic study that reiterated what we’ve been advocating all along on Powering America Radio.
The University of Colorado, Boulder, by no means a bastion of pro-fracking advocacy, studied that dastardly substance that many a seasoned environmentalist have repeatedly used to demonize American Energy Independence: Frack Fluids.
Their finding? What’ goes down the well is no more hazardous than what lies beneath your sink, or sits atop your laundry closet.
This was the first-ever scientific report anywhere, and was conducted by a team of researchers from CU Boulder. They studied wells in Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Texas. The results showed that the chemicals found in the fluid samples showed they were the same chemicals found in fluid samples from everyday household products found in your home. Specifically mentioned were toothpaste, laxatives, detergent and even ice cream.
We created an infographic that puts it in simple language and you can see it by clicking this link.
I feel relieved. We knew this all along from the multiple vendors with whom we work closely. We knew these folks weren’t dumping random toxins down into the earth. These are highly regulated processes, overseen by multiple PhD level scientists, carefully tracked by multiple state agencies.
Environmentalists have turned fracking into a boogieman for several reasons. American Energy Independence from the shale revolution stalls their agenda of advancing exclusive renewable energy. Problem is, have you ever seen an airplane run on solar panels? Or better yet, a windmill? No thanks on that one.
Fracking is a generally safe process that is performed without incident some 18,000 times a year. It’s created hundreds of thousands of direct jobs, and well over a million non-direct support roles. It has the Saudi’s nervous and is providing hope that America can power itself with it’s own fuel.
I’m thrilled to see science, especially from a liberal University with excellent credentials, issue a non-biased report. Keep Frackin’ America.
Understood - but for the record, I do not drink the substances which lie beneath my sink or sit atop of my laundry cabinet.
I do, however, drink groundwater.
This has long been known. I had an interview with the low profile fracking technology pioneer Schlumberger and they explained it well.
If you see a guy in a blue uniform saving a bunch of miners in South America, they are Schlumberger fracking engineers drilling them out to safety with these safe products.
Ping.
But but but fracking might crack mother Earth!!!
Cool, but now watch for the enviros to call for a ban on “toothpaste, laxatives, detergent and even ice cream”
I don't like the study for that implication.
There isn't anything existing naturally in the oil/gas reservoir you want to drink either.
This isn't being injected into the drinking water levels.
Thankfully, the CU STEM departments are successfully evading the unmeasurable idiocy that pervades Boulder.
How long that can last is debatable.
Always remember that they made Ward Churchill (the male version of fauxahantis, just as stupid, but even uglier), a Department Head.
Your problem is you dont know the truth they drill down 2500 feet ground water does not exist below 1000 feet ask anyone who drills for water????
And those substances are much more likely to affect groundwater if they are used or disposed improperly such as down the drain to your septic tank. That connection is a lot closer to your well than frac fluids used thousands of feet beneath protected groundwater.
Yes, I must be very uninformed on the topic of producing oil and gas. I hope you can help me learn more.
they drill down 2500 feet
Sometime more, sometimes less. Most of the shale fields are this deep r more.
ground water does not exist below 1000 feet
If you mean potable drinking water, I believe that is true. Too much salt content as you get lower, but there is certainly water lower, it is in the oil/gas fields as well.
WHAT!
YOU DON’T DRINK OIL?
Now you tell me.
The elites have convinced the dumb mass “good person” sheeperals that “energy usage” = “evil”.
The dumb masses get their sense of self-righteousness fulfilled,
and the elites get more control over the rest of us.
I understand. In fact, my post was intended to point out the oversimplification of the issue perpetrated by this study (in my opinion).
The zones in to which fracking fluids are injected are several thousand feet below the surface.
Most groundwater wells are well below 1,000 ft deep.
However, both types of wells originate at the surface, so there is always a small chance of groundwater wells being contaminated by fracking fluids, particularly if well casings are improperly installed or sealed.
By the way, I am in favor of fracking, as long as measures are taken to protect the groundwater zones during and after the fracking operations.
Groundwater most definitely exists at depths of 2,500 feet (or even more).
If the casing are not properly installed/cemented, the ground water is at risk of pollution regardless if the well is hydro frac’d or not.
From my point of view, it is not a hydro frac concern, it is any drilling at all concern.
Actually, I have drilled for water extensively throughout the Piedmont region of Virginia.
In most areas, if the rock fractures at depths up to 500 ft do not contain water, then there is little point in drilling deeper.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, though, and after drilling 5 or 6 600’+ ‘dry holes’ in one area we decided to keep going. We ended up hitting a water-producing fracture zone at about 850 ft, and another at 1050 ft. The water was very ‘hard’, but quite good quality otherwise. That was more than 20 years ago, and as far as I know, the well is still in use.
I do prefer 350-500 ft deep wells, though. Much less expensive.
The possibility that both the production and surface casing cement jobs are bad is so small it almost doesn’t exist.
You are right, it’s not about fracking it’s about drilling.
Good point. But hydro-fracking involves subjecting well casings and grout to a good deal more positive pressure than simply pumping oil, does it not?
If it leaks during the hydro-frac process, I suspect it is going to leak afterwards during production.
I don’t see the chemicals that exist in the initial process a greater problem than the years of oil/gas that follows.
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