Hydraulic Fracturing, also known as fracking, has been debated as being an irresponsible technique for oil and natural gas recovery from shale beds in the earth. Some environmentalists have made claims that hydraulic fracturing practices employed by oil and gas drilling companies have caused ground water contamination, leakage of methane gas into the atmosphere, and even claims that fracking can increase the chance of an earthquake taking place (Loki 8). An industry so large as oil and gas that can have an impact on the environment from small scale to large scale, Deep Water Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico, are under federal regulations from entities like Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and others more specific to oil and gas like
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Most wells are drilled straight down vertically to a determined depth to locate fossil fuels. The bottom of a well is not an open void filled with crude oil and natural gas that can easily be sucked out, like drinking water from a glass through a straw. The bottom of a well would terminate into a rock layer called a shale bed. Oil and gas will seep through small cracks in the shale bed into the wellbore for recovery to the surface. Hydraulic fracking is the process of drilling horizontally from the bottom of the vertical bore along the shale bed. Once drilling along the shale bed has been completed a high-pressure hydro slurry is injected into the well causing the rock in the shale bed to fracture, imagine the cracks in a shattered windshield of a car, opening more passages for oil and gas to be able to seep into the well bore for recovery to the surface (King Hydraulic). This process can make the well much more efficient, in some wells companies saw an increase of 1200% in production (Manfreda …show more content…
The Nation Research Council released a statement saying “Hydraulic Fracturing does not pose a high risk of inducing earthquakes.” There have been seismic vibrations detected on a drill site during hydraulic fracturing but is not known if the vibrations came from the surface or deep underground where the fracturing is happening. On a drill location, there is multiple diesel powered equipment running, sometimes just for the hydraulic injection into the well, there are four pumps each producing close to two thousand horsepower (Williams Truth). This amount of horsepower is going to generate
Most wells are drilled straight down vertically to a determined depth to locate fossil fuels. The bottom of a well is not an open void filled with crude oil and natural gas that can easily be sucked out, like drinking water from a glass through a straw. The bottom of a well would terminate into a rock layer called a shale bed. Oil and gas will seep through small cracks in the shale bed into the wellbore for recovery to the surface. Hydraulic fracking is the process of drilling horizontally from the bottom of the vertical bore along the shale bed. Once drilling along the shale bed has been completed a high-pressure hydro slurry is injected into the well causing the rock in the shale bed to fracture, imagine the cracks in a shattered windshield of a car, opening more passages for oil and gas to be able to seep into the well bore for recovery to the surface (King Hydraulic). This process can make the well much more efficient, in some wells companies saw an increase of 1200% in production (Manfreda …show more content…
The Nation Research Council released a statement saying “Hydraulic Fracturing does not pose a high risk of inducing earthquakes.” There have been seismic vibrations detected on a drill site during hydraulic fracturing but is not known if the vibrations came from the surface or deep underground where the fracturing is happening. On a drill location, there is multiple diesel powered equipment running, sometimes just for the hydraulic injection into the well, there are four pumps each producing close to two thousand horsepower (Williams Truth). This amount of horsepower is going to generate