Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing, is a type of drilling that uses water, sand and chemicals, shot at high pressure, to release energy resources trapped inside rocks. This recently new technology for drilling allows areas that were previously inaccessible for drilling, like very concentrated rocky areas, to now be opened up through fracking to obtain natural gases and oil. The water solution used with this drilling technique produces almost the same amount of “sludge” as an after effect. This sludge is disposed by either pumping it down a different hole in the ground, or leaving it in a “frack pond”, that will be covered with dirt after becoming full. When hydraulic fracturing was first applied, its process was achieved with the
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Leasing out some of their land has become a life line for many land owners in fracking states. However, many drilling companies are using legal jargon to lock down land owners into perpetual leases, forcing them to have drilling continue on their lands for generations. In 2005, “Congress amended the Safe Water Drinking Act to exclude regulation of hydraulic fracturing,” essentially ignoring the already compiling evidence that showed fracking fluid and wastewater were very dangerous for the health of the environment. The state’s health department of Pennsylvania released a statement in 2012 which read, “Significant adverse impacts on human health are not expected from routine HVHF (hydro-fracking) operations.” The only problem with this statement was, what was defined as “routine HVHF”? No federal regulations have been set into place and the few state regulations that are in place cover so little of what is involved in fracking that a “routine HVHF” could vary greatly from well to well. A documentary produced by filmmaker Josh Fox, entitled “Gasland” became “instantly famous for its shot of a man lighting on fire the methane flowing from his water faucet.” This event of course, happened after a fracking well had been in operation nearby for a period of time. Mr. Ely of Pennsylvania signed a leasing contract with a major oil and gas company and after speaking with the salesman for the company “felt certain it required the company to leave the property as good as new.” When the terms of the lease had come to an end, Cabot Oil and Gas told the Ely’s that instead of removing the waste from their drilling efforts, they would “cover it with dirt and seed the area with grass.” This newer method of sludge disposal seems almost if not more dangerous than the other method of depositing the toxic sludge deep under the aquifer (an underground body of
Leasing out some of their land has become a life line for many land owners in fracking states. However, many drilling companies are using legal jargon to lock down land owners into perpetual leases, forcing them to have drilling continue on their lands for generations. In 2005, “Congress amended the Safe Water Drinking Act to exclude regulation of hydraulic fracturing,” essentially ignoring the already compiling evidence that showed fracking fluid and wastewater were very dangerous for the health of the environment. The state’s health department of Pennsylvania released a statement in 2012 which read, “Significant adverse impacts on human health are not expected from routine HVHF (hydro-fracking) operations.” The only problem with this statement was, what was defined as “routine HVHF”? No federal regulations have been set into place and the few state regulations that are in place cover so little of what is involved in fracking that a “routine HVHF” could vary greatly from well to well. A documentary produced by filmmaker Josh Fox, entitled “Gasland” became “instantly famous for its shot of a man lighting on fire the methane flowing from his water faucet.” This event of course, happened after a fracking well had been in operation nearby for a period of time. Mr. Ely of Pennsylvania signed a leasing contract with a major oil and gas company and after speaking with the salesman for the company “felt certain it required the company to leave the property as good as new.” When the terms of the lease had come to an end, Cabot Oil and Gas told the Ely’s that instead of removing the waste from their drilling efforts, they would “cover it with dirt and seed the area with grass.” This newer method of sludge disposal seems almost if not more dangerous than the other method of depositing the toxic sludge deep under the aquifer (an underground body of