Fracking or Hydraulic fracking, is the process of injecting high pressure of water into the ground to destroy rocks known as shale rocks in order to get oil and natural gas. Fracking is a fairly simple process but has several steps involved. Before oil companies can start drilling into the ground they have to find these areas known as shale areas or tight rock formation. Once they find one of these areas, they start to drill into the ground for about a mile. After the drill has gone down for about a mile, it turns horizontally and continues to drill for several thousand feet. Once the drill is done it will go back and cased and cemented the well, so that it can make small areas in the horizontal section of the well. After all of this is done,
…show more content…
Fracking is damaging natural resources because it replaces places like forest and farms with infrastructure like well pads, roads and pipelines. One example of this is in Pennsylvania where they are clearing forest land in order to build more fracking sites. This has caused nutrient pollution to the Chesapeake Bay. Even without fracking the Chesapeake Bay is becoming a nutrient-generate dead zone. The Pennsylvania has estimated that in order to reduce the amount of pollution would cost 1.5 to 4 million dollars per year. Another effect fracking is having on the environment is that it is contaminating the soil around it. It has been report that the amount of soil infected by drill waste has increases by 5,100% over the past decade. This can be translated to over 510,000 tons just from last year alone. One of the primary causes of this is because trucks carrying the oil are going to factures 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Not only does oil affect the soil but methanol pollution created can have negative side effects on farm animals and aquatic life. Research has found that animals that drink water that is mixed with fracking wastewater were later found dead an hour later. Pregnant cows that had drank fracking wastewater started to produce stillborn …show more content…
Originally power plants companies would burn coal to get power but they soon realized this was causing way too much greenhouse gasses. So they decided to switch over to burning natural gas because it released fewer greenhouse gases. But in getting natural gas, by the means of fracking, would release even more harmful chemicals into the atmosphere. After fracking is done the leftover wastewater is then let into open air pits so that it can be evaporated. This evaporated water also knows as VOC (volatile organic compounds) are released into the atmosphere that can have serious side effects. The VOC can create contaminated air, acid rain and ground level ozone. Many of the chemicals released are benzene, toluene, xylene and ethyl benzene, particulate matter and dust, ground level ozone, or smog, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and metals. One of the major VOC is known as methane and is known to cause climate change. Methane is leaked out during fracking that can escape into the atmosphere and affect the climate. Methane is a chemical that is able to 25 times more heat if in the atmosphere. While power plants thought using natural gas would be a better alternative than burning coal, the process to get it is still causes the same effect. Not only does fracking affect the atmosphere but it can also have huge
Fracking is damaging natural resources because it replaces places like forest and farms with infrastructure like well pads, roads and pipelines. One example of this is in Pennsylvania where they are clearing forest land in order to build more fracking sites. This has caused nutrient pollution to the Chesapeake Bay. Even without fracking the Chesapeake Bay is becoming a nutrient-generate dead zone. The Pennsylvania has estimated that in order to reduce the amount of pollution would cost 1.5 to 4 million dollars per year. Another effect fracking is having on the environment is that it is contaminating the soil around it. It has been report that the amount of soil infected by drill waste has increases by 5,100% over the past decade. This can be translated to over 510,000 tons just from last year alone. One of the primary causes of this is because trucks carrying the oil are going to factures 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Not only does oil affect the soil but methanol pollution created can have negative side effects on farm animals and aquatic life. Research has found that animals that drink water that is mixed with fracking wastewater were later found dead an hour later. Pregnant cows that had drank fracking wastewater started to produce stillborn …show more content…
Originally power plants companies would burn coal to get power but they soon realized this was causing way too much greenhouse gasses. So they decided to switch over to burning natural gas because it released fewer greenhouse gases. But in getting natural gas, by the means of fracking, would release even more harmful chemicals into the atmosphere. After fracking is done the leftover wastewater is then let into open air pits so that it can be evaporated. This evaporated water also knows as VOC (volatile organic compounds) are released into the atmosphere that can have serious side effects. The VOC can create contaminated air, acid rain and ground level ozone. Many of the chemicals released are benzene, toluene, xylene and ethyl benzene, particulate matter and dust, ground level ozone, or smog, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and metals. One of the major VOC is known as methane and is known to cause climate change. Methane is leaked out during fracking that can escape into the atmosphere and affect the climate. Methane is a chemical that is able to 25 times more heat if in the atmosphere. While power plants thought using natural gas would be a better alternative than burning coal, the process to get it is still causes the same effect. Not only does fracking affect the atmosphere but it can also have huge