Benefits Of Fracking And Dangers It Possesses To Environment And Human Health

Fracking is a process to obtain natural gases. It begins by drilling a vertical hole into the ground, around a depth of 8,200 feet or more. Once the drill has reached this depth, another smaller drill begins to drill horizontally into the shale rock. Shale rock is a soft rock composed of mud and clay.

A special tool is then used to shoot a pressurized mixture of water, sand and chemicals into the well, cracking the underground shale rock layer. Gases and oils escape from the cracks and work their way to the surface, allowing workers to collect oil and natural gas. This process, hydro-fracking, and it can have some negative effects on the environment and surrounding areas. I will try to go through the pros and cons of fracking before disusing my final conclusion; Could fracking be considered an environmental injustice?

Fracking is harmful for the environment for many reasons. One main reason fracking is terrible for the environment is the fact that methane and other gases are produced. The methane produced can become trapped underground in one particular spot. When methane is trapped, it can expand and can cause that section of the earth to create flames. A family in Texas experienced an explosion firsthand, one of the family members was filling a cattle trough and she noticed the water wasn’t spraying from the pump. Her husband and his father went to look at the pump; turning the pump on they heard a troublesome noise. The husband pushed the father out of the way after hearing this noise and he did so just in time. A ball of flames from the wellhead had exploded. Leaving the family with severe burns; they believe this was caused by a methane buildup for two fracking wells located nearby.

Another issue with Methane buildup is the potential for a hazardous explosion. This can result in a whole town or area having to evacuate their place of residence due to the danger of fires and explosions.

Finally, the impact methane has on the environment can be on a global scale; methane pollution is a greenhouse gas that prompts damage to the atmosphere, in turn causing climate change. The methane in the air then affects climate control by destroying the ozone layer in the stratosphere. Some other gases produced from fracking drilling are benzene, toluene, xylene, and ethyl benzene. “At extremely high concentrations in an enclosed space the reduction in oxygen levels could lead to suffocation” (SEPA). All of these chemicals are harmful to not only people, but also the environment. These other airborne chemicals, like methane, also affect climate control and the ozone layer. “A recent study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) monitoring gas wells in Weld County, Colorado, estimated that 4 percent of the methane produced by these wells is escaping [into the] atmosphere” (Hoffman, 2012). 4 percent of methane taints our clean air supply and can cause environmental issues due to air quality.

Another reason fracking is harmful for the environment is that methane is the leading factor in threats to water quality. Flowback fracking liquid brought to the surface is disposed of in pits on site. This flowback is contaminated with harmful materials. When methane fuses with water it becomes arsenic. Also, Iron can become more easily dissolved in drinking water. Both chemical situations cause anaerobic bacteria. “In both Pennsylvania and Texas, there have been clear, well-documented episodes of migration of natural gas into the drinking water supply.” (Finkel, Madelon 12). One documented example from Pennsylvania recounts that in 2011, an energy company was cleared to tap natural gas beneath Bryan Latkanich’s land. The electric company began fracking and soon after, the well water at Latkanich’s property in Deemston, PA, began tasting metallic. Latkanich developed stomach problems, likely due to the water quality and his 7-year-old son emerged one day from a bath covered in bleeding sores (Has Fracking Tainted Your Water, 2017).

Besides contaminating drinking water, other bodies of water are affected by fracking too. Unfortunately, waste from fracking is often pumped into holding ponds; waste in the holding ponds can sometimes leak and settle into surrounding groundwater, impacting wildlife and nature’s access to clean water. The contamination of groundwater is not only a major concern for wildlife, but also, for all humans who live near or around drilling operations, especially if they rely on drinking well water. The contamination of nearby watersheds that provide drinking water for many people urban communities, poses a significant threat as well.

The effects on wildlife are tremendous when the water is filled into the holding ponds many large and small animals see it as a new drinking source. Animals like deer, rabbit, squirrels, and more. These animals drink the pond water unknowing that the water has radioactive compounds in it. This effects the animal by making it ill and or killing it. Once the animal is dead the chemical does not leave the body. This in return will affect scavenger animals that are eating the rotting corpse. The scavengers are then affected by the chemicals and it is a repeating process from there.

If the fracking is done near a farm of sorts the farm animals could also be affected. The pond water can spread through the ground killing the grass that the animals eat. The water could also take a different affect and contaminate the grass that the animal is eating this not only affect the animal but the farmer as well. The animal can no longer be used for meat, they may not sell the affected animal to another buyer, and if the animal dies the farmer has lost out on the money of buying that animal and getting nothing in return.

Water pollution or contamination can not only make humans ill, but it also has the ability to kill. “The Lancet published a study citing that 1.8 million deaths occurred nationwide in 2015 due to water pollution and contamination” (Denchak, 2019) The contaminated water effects the endocrine disruptors, this interferes with the body's endocrine system. This will affect reproduction, nerves, and immune health. These are just effects on the inside of the body; the outside of the body may develop skin lesions, sores, and open wounds. Unsafe drinking water negatively impacts communities, and unfortunately in low-income communities, the risk of illness is greater due to poor access to clean water.

Another issue fracking can cause is accidental earthquakes. Earthquakes can be caused by fires, explosions, and the pressure of the water waste injection- all of which are likely during the fracking process. Oklahoma was one of the first states to notice this trend. The state was not typically prone to earthquakes before fracking was a popular process. After fracking began in Oklahoma, the state started experiencing many small and medium sized earthquakes. The earthquakes were caused by chemicals released during fracking, which took away rock and sediment, decreased the amount of underground land, and created shifts in the upper land mass. Once the connection was discovered between fracking and earthquakes, Oklahoma developed regulations for natural resource extraction, and the number of earthquakes declined. Unfortunately, earthquakes and poor water supply are not the only hazardous threats to humans.

Fracking is also terrible due to serious health effects it can produce. Almost 75% of the chemicals used in this process could affect the eyes, skin, and sensory organs. Breathing in natural gas is harmful to the respiratory system; it can create trouble breathing or promote the development of asthma and asthma attacks due to poor air quality. Around 40% of the gases will affect the brain and/or nervous system. Chemicals affecting the brain can cause suffocation, loss of consciousness, and headaches. Chemicals affecting the nervous system can lead to the loss of coordination. Methane is a serious gas that can strongly affect the body and destroy cells. Workers must be extremely careful when working with the chemicals and gases during fracking.

The dangers and environmental harm caused by fracking are terrible, however it gets much worse. Unfortunately, fracking can happen close to people’s homes and neighborhoods, sometimes only a few miles away. This means people living nearby to the work site may be suffering the consequences of poor environmental air quality and dangerous living conditions. Some of these conditions, besides the threat of Methane and close earthquakes, are the heavy trucks carting materials that constantly drive down the road. These trucks over time will wear down the road and create cracks and potholes. The trucks can also be somewhat loud and disturbing to the people of the community. This can cause people to feel as if they are not at home, but in an industrial worksite.

Although fracking creates jobs it is seen that many of these jobs go to the outside. The community rarely gains any jobs from the fracking site. This does not allow the community to gain profits from the fracking site. Most fracking sites want people with experience so they will bring people in from all over the great 50 states. This means that the buget help set for the town declines with them paying for people to come to them. With the effect of fracking running through the town many businesses can gain and suffer. Restaurants can gain as the new jobs brings in costumers, but if anything is to go wrong during the fracking process (water contamination, earthquakes, fires) the businesses can suffer. This affects the towns money and budget, it can close business down and ruin lives.

Some people also believe fracking is better because of the clean water act which enable the fracking company to drill wherever they please but then these company must pay for any destruction they may cause. They’d have to pay for an entire town to receive clean water until the contamination has been cleaned up. People believe this is a good thing because they will be unaffected in the long run, what people do not consider is the length of time it will take to clean the water. It could take month or years to clean up the water to have suitable drinking water.

Fracking, as great as it may seem for the economy, is too much of a nuisance to continue. Not only can it be troublesome for neighborhoods and homes around fracking sites, but it can also do great harm to the environment and air quality. This in turn ruins the environment, promotes the ongoing issue of global climate change and can cause health issues affecting not only working the site, but the people that live around the site. The best solution to solve is controversy surrounding fracking is to put an end to the practice. The amount of damage being done is just not worth the natural resources obtained. Some towns have already begun to ban fracking, to promote the health of the population, the wildlife, and the environment. Other towns are beginning to have industries create natural gas to make sure the trajectory of energy will not have any catastrophic impact on the earth and on public health.

Some benefits to fracking are gas bills; they seem to drop it is estimated that from 2007 to 2013 $13 billion dollars was saved on gas bills alone. This adds up to $200 per years for gas-consuming houses. “The U.S. fracking revolution has caused natural gas prices to drop 47 percent compared to what the price would have been prior to the fracking revolution in 2013.”(Brookings) These are very impressive savings, but one must ask are these savings worth the damage of the earth and the risk to people around the site. Weighting out the options it's not a safe choice.

The last benefit of fracking is that it is a quick process, because fracking wells are not permanent the fracking itself could only last a few months to a year. People believe that since the fracking could only take a few months to a few years that the consequence are diminished since the time frame is shortened. Drilling operation will eventually case and then a well can operate independently. This leaves a minimal presence on the land. This is a false statement because as most people know the time does not matter, a problem could happen in a spilt second followed by disaster.

Finally, many towns are opting to burn coal; although burning coal is not ideal, the negative impacts of fracking far outweigh the burning of coal. The solutions are not perfect, but they do allow us to get what we need as a society and keep us from furthering the pollution already affecting our planet. During the meantime, using our temporary solutions, we can continue to make scientific discoveries and develop better solutions to help better our environment and improve our quality of life.