Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 12/10/2011 7:12:13 PM PST by neverdem
Hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") is the process used by the energy industry to extract immense deposits of oil and natural gas from deep geologic formations that only a few years ago were unreachable. It involves injecting a solution of water and chemicals far underground, typically thousands of feet below groundwater supplies. Fracking was first used in Oklahoma in the 1940s and in the years since has been employed in more than a million oil and gas wells across the nation. There is not a single independently documented instance of groundwater contamination by fracking anywhere in the country, a fact that was confirmed as recently as May by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson during congressional testimony. So why did the EPA announce Thursday in a draft report that chemicals "likely" associated with fracking were found at a drilling site near Pavilion, Wyo.? Big Green activists who are determined to stop fracking will loudly proclaim from every media rooftop in coming days that there is now "proof" that fracking endangers drinking water across America. Here's what these ideologically blinded zealots won't tell you:
The next two sentences in the EPA announcement quoted in the opening paragraph state: "EPA also re-tested private and public drinking water wells in the community. The samples were consistent with chemicals identified in earlier EPA results released in 2010 and are generally below established health and safety standards." By "below," the EPA means that chemicals in the groundwater do not exceed acceptable health and safety standards.
As for the chemicals "likely" associated with fracking, they could have from multiple sources. For example, Energy in Depth, an industry research group that supports fracking, notes that the U.S. Geological Survey found that water quality in the area is unusually variable because of the geology's "highly variable lithology [i.e. general geologic characteristics], permeability, and recharge conditions." The area has also in recent years featured unusually high levels of pesticides and significant drainage problems, according to the USGS.
But don't expect such facts to deter Big Green propagandists - and their allies in the liberal mainstream media -- from spreading mountains of misinformation, as well as wild-eyed predictions of doom if fracking is not instantly banned. Some of them have already started, as seen in a headline published a few weeks ago: "EPA finds compound used in fracking in Wyoming aquifer." That unsupported assertion appears over a story published on its website by Pro Publica, a New York-based outfit that describes its purpose as "using the moral force of investigative journalism to spur reform through the sustained spotlighting of wrongdoing." Funny, we thought credible journalists gathered all of the facts before assigning blame. The facts remain as they were stated by Jackson in May: The EPA has not yet documented a single case in which fracking caused groundwater contamination.
So the media will continue their hysteria and Obozo’s administration will, no doubt, order a halt to it because — that’s what liberals do.
I have a different question. I believe oil is still being created underground. Any oil withdrawn will be replaced naturally over time. I’m wondering if the fracking chemicals will stop the natural development process.
Here we go again. Obama and his liberal goons will be throwing “gasoline” on the francking fire....nothing new here folks. Move along.
“I have a different question. I believe oil is still being created underground. Any oil withdrawn will be replaced naturally over time. I’m wondering if the fracking chemicals will stop the natural development process.”
No. The fracking chemistry is 99+% inert. Virtually all of the frac water is pulled back out of the well as reject water. What’s left are sand proppant and surface active agents (so the liquids flow more easily through the fractured pores).
“I have a different question. I believe oil is still being created underground. Any oil withdrawn will be replaced naturally over time. I’m wondering if the fracking chemicals will stop the natural development process.”
No. The fracking chemistry is 99+% inert. Virtually all of the frac water is pulled back out of the well as reject water. What’s left are sand proppant and surface active agents (so the liquids flow more easily through the fractured pores).
I'm over these morons, who sit near me, work half days, talk politics most of that time, conduct themselves unprofessionally while they're at it. I get more done in a half an hour than the lot of them do in a day. Useful idiots.
Even if they weren't, an ocean of them wouldn't be enough to make significant presence underneath the earth's surface, even if they didn't evaporate in moment.
Just oy.
The nuts have been attacking this process here in Arkansas. They pushed hard to open up for drilling, took the gas company cash, and now are turning on those companies and beating them over the heads. It’s nuts.
Oil has been found in that part of Wyoming in seeps and as close to the surface as 300 feet since 1832 when fur trappers discovered Indians using it.
http://www.wind-river.org/info/historyandculture/firstoilfield.php
One of the chief compounds used in fracking is present in any aquifer: water.
I was born and raised in the heart of, what is now known as, the Marcellus Shale belt of PA.
They have been drilling and fracking gas wells there, including several on our family farm, since I can remember. To my knowledge and to the knowledge of family members who still live in the area, no one has died or been stricken ill because drillers fracked a gas well.
What they have noticed in the area is a substantial boost in economic activity in the countless small towns and villages from out of state drillers swarming over the area requiring rooms and meals for their workers. Gas, oil, tires and repairs to vehicles, and everything else crew members might require, many being hundreds of miles from home for weeks at a time.
I’m wondering if the fracking chemicals will stop the natural development process.....No. We fracked a well 50 years ago and got around 300 bbls. a month out of it for six years or so. Recently, we tested the shaft (to determine gas pressure) and found it has pooled oil again.
I read that the EPA test wells were drilled down into the oil-producing levels. If true, this becomes a criminal matter.
” the EPA test wells were drilled down into the oil-producing levels.”
The epa drilled the wells to about 800 feet, and the other to almost 1,000 feet, in an area where I believe water wells are 120 to 200 feet deep. I suppose the epa will say that the contaminants are “moving up.” If the contaminants do move up, it may be the result of the epa drilling those very wells!
Having a very hard time posting! Hope I don’t get a multiple post! Why every Sunday?
I'm with you, but I don't worry about your question. I think that the oil is naturally created in the mantle of the earth and forced outward by the centrifugal spin of the planet. You should read this book.
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