Posts Tagged ‘ fracking contamination ’

On Shaky Ground? Fracking Lawsuits, Earthquakes and Bad Water (oh my)

March 7th, 2011. By AbiK

Maybe oil (ok, natural gas) and water (and the earth) don’t mix after all…

So there’s a post over at the Forbes blog today by Dr. Michael Economides defending hydraulic fracking. There’s also a post over at The Motley Fool that shares hydraulic fracturing’s new “problem”: earthquakes. (Actually it isn’t “new”—the notion of fracking contributing to earthquakes has been just below the mainstream media’s lens for a while now).

I had just watched (a bit overdue) the documentary “Flow” last night (clip above), about the threats to our global water supply—worth watching for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet—but it’s actually a good place to begin to understand at a quick glance the reasoning behind the fracking-earthquake connection. Keep in mind, of course, with the creation of water wells and the removal of groundwater, the impact on earth’s subsurface is akin to creating a void—like pulling the rug out from under your feet; with hydraulic fracturing, the issue is more about the injection of pressurized water into the earth and the subsequent collection and disposal of that water into wastewater wells. Note also, we’re not talking straight and pure H20 here—the fracking wastewater also contains any of an assortment of chemicals possibly including methane gas, benzene, tuolene, ethylbenzene and xylenes, hexavalent chromium and hydrochloric acid.

So without being an engineer or scientist, this fracking-earthquake connection sort of makes sense—as you keep undermining or comprising the integrity of the earth’s subsurface, maybe Mother Nature starts to reach her breaking point. Consider—particularly if you’ve seen “Flow— Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: earthquakes, Flow, fracking, fracking contamination, Fracking lawsuit, hydraulic fracking, hydraulic fracturing, hydraulic-fracturing-water-contamination-epa-fracking-hydrofracking, Michael Economides
Posted in Emerging Issues, Environment | 1 Comment »