The Good, Bad and Ugly of Fracking Essay Example for Free

The Good, Bad and Ugly of Fracking EssayThere is a gold rush deviation on right now. Man is breaking the earth, looking for inseparable hit manolene. Its a mad scene, with hucksters on every side of the issue. There is a lot going on underground and that process is called Fracking. The treatment alone bottomland stir up controversy. The process of extracting inhering waste through hydraulic fracturing or fracking, might summon in someones imagination an environment and damaged communities. Natural gas hides from sight it is invisible. Perhaps envisioned a prettier pictureone that involves clean-burning supply, job growth and affordable life force. The interior(a) Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) states that fracking is the process of injecting full-grown volumes of water, sand and chemicals into the ground at naughty pressure sensation to break up shale formation allowing more efficient recovery of oil and gas (Walter). This behave has grown rap idly over the course of the last decade thanks to improved technologies, but it withal has fostered debates concerning its environmental, health and safety impact along the way.The process of hydraulic fracturing shooting water, sand, and chemicals at high pressure into underground wells to release natural gas is a divisive issue. Some say it cast aside chemicals into ground water supplies some others argue it causes earthquakes, and still others think it can revolutionize Americas nix industry. Environmentalists argue that fracking collys ground and surface water a charge the gas companies deny. Heres the caper the fracking process begins with a well drilled deep underground. Horizontal passages be then drilled superficial from the bottom of the well.Water, sand and chemicals are pumped at high pressure through the water is insignificant, and it has never been proven that those chemicals rise ground water supplies. On the other hand, environmentalists say the work throu ghward drilling process, if do poorly, releases chemicals into both ground and surface water. Both arguments are strong, which is why no one can mark whether fracking is a good or bad thing. The science is not settled arguments are hurled back and forward by both gas companies and environmentalists. On the earthquake issue, seismologists say it is possible fracking can cause excellent earthquakes.The British Geological Survey researched the Blackpool earthquakes, and the conclusion was reasonable. However, they did come back and say, the chances of getting a very large earthquake are insignificant (Walter). Meanwhile, a contaminated water supply is a hotly-debated issue in that location have been cases where fracking has polluted water supplies as a result of poor oversight and procedures, but it does attend that if done correctly, fracking is not nearly as environmentally disruptive as traditional oil and gas extraction.One thing that is settled are the benefits homegrown nat ural gas adds to the US energy industry. As chemist and author rich Trzupek wrote recently America has become, in the eyes of energy professions, the Saudi Arabia of natural gas thanks to shale gas. The doe estimates that shale gas reserves alone are 750 trillion cubic feet. (McGraw). Combines with other domestic sources of natural gas, the United States has enough natural gas to last for over a century, and the add up continue to climb.In areas where shale gas drilling is happening, the good times are rolling. Not only are people making money from the energy sales, jobs are created down the line, from the companies who support drilling operations down to the service industries that provide workers with food and shelter (McGraw). According to Carlton Carroll, American Petroleum Institute (API) the oil and natural gas industrys number one priority is safety. It is very important to maintain a perfect safety record but even one incident is way too many.In a December 2012 press releas e, API called the extraction from natural gas from shale the most important domestic energy development in the last fifty yearspoised to reshape American manufacturing. And Chevrons web site touts the practice for providing the United States with reliable, affordable, cleaner and responsibly produced energy (Walter). Developing these natural gas resources can help enhance the countrys energy security, strengthen local anesthetic and state economies, and fuel job growth.Many Americans, oppose any kind of pollution. However, here are reasons to support fracking 1. It can prolong to our nation becoming energy independent 2. It go away provide an enormous boost to our state and local economies 3. It has already driven down natural gas prices to the point where utilities are replacing dirty coal-fired motive plants with cleaner natural gas-burning plans and increasingly vehicles are burning natural gas instead of dirtier gasoline 4.It will provide many well-paying jobs to geologists, well drillers, office workers, truck drivers, construction workers, and many more. So what is the snagand how honest is it? Communities where fracking has taken place, notably in Ohio and Pennsylvania, protest the noise and scarring of the landscaping during the initial explorations. Restoration and compensation can better those concerns. The most significant fear is that the wastewater with chemicals from the fracking process, called, flowback, can contaminate the aquifers and drinking water.State regulators in Alaska, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, Pennslvania, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming have stated that there have been no verified or documented cases of groundwater pollution as a result of hydraulic fracking (Zuckerman). The process uses about 99 percent water and sand, the stay put being a solution of a few chemicals (Zuckerman). Most drilling experts have asserted that it is exceedingly improbable that fracking liquids will contaminate drinking wate r. Fortunately, no cases exist in which the fracking process itself has caused drilling liquids to contaminate drinking water.The issue then is whether the flowback hazard can remain at acceptable levels. The real risk of exposure of water contamination comes from these flowback fluids leaking into streams or seeping down into groundwater after reaching the surface. This can be caused by leaky wellheads, attribute tanks or blowouts. Wellheads are made sufficiently safe to prevent this eventuality holding tanks can be made secure and blowouts, while problematic, are like all accidents caused by benignant error. The energy industry has long stressed that fracking and water contamination has never been definitibely linked.