Persuasive Essay On Fracking: Opportunity Or Danger

Fracking: Opportunity or Danger
Introduction
Imagine a landowner living in a sparsely populated area. He has to depend upon the resources provided by the land for sustenance. The most important of these resources is water. Now imagine that a company is, legally, pumping millions of gallons of contaminated water, with extreme force, deep inside a well dug nearby. The water is then extracted and is disposed of in a less than efficient manner. All this process which is done in order to extract the natural gas trapped deep inside the earth’s surface is known as hydraulic fracturing or Fracking. This paper will be discussing about Fracking and its significance to water irrigation systems to a certain community. It seeks to find out the relevance of Fracking in terms of beneficial outcomes and challenges that it brings out to the community.
Fracking is referred to as a process wherein the rock is fractured using a pressurized liquid that is brought about by a relatively newer technology, used in order to extract the natural gas trapped deep inside the earth’s surface (Gandossi & Von Estorff, n.p.). The method mixes millions of gallons of water with organic and inorganic chemicals, some of which are toxic in nature. This water, along with sand, is then pumped, with heavy pressure into a well dug into the ground. These wells can be up to a mile deep or more. The pressurized, chemically treated water created fractures or cracks in the underlying shale rock, thus creating a path for the trapped natural gas to escape. The water is extracted back to the surface while the sand keeps the fractures from closing, thus keeping a path open for the natural gas to escape to the surface (King, n.p.).
(Abdalla, et al., n.p.) indicated that “fracking supports emerging treatment and disposal technologies to improve water systems in the community”. This is because the whole process of fracking may seem simple and harmless but on closer inspection, it is revealed to have caused irreparable damage to the drinking water sources located in the surrounding areas. The main reason for contamination to happen is that when the water is extracted back to the surface, it is not treated and disposed of carefully as it should be done. This water escapes from the well, seeping back into the ground and this time it is much closer to the drinking water sources. One more path for water contamination is the cracks developed in the rock layers as a result of the fracking pressure and inadequate insulation of the waste water, thus contaminating potable water.
The first major evidence of water contamination due to fracking was obtained in Pavillion, Wyoming by a retired EPA official. The population of Wyoming discovered a foul taste and smell of drinking water (Schrope, n.p.). This prompted an inquiry by the EPA. Test wells were dug beside the fracking wells and the water inside the test wells was sent to laboratories for detecting the presence of any harmful or toxic chemicals. Unfortunately, the findings were never made public and the inquiry itself was shifted to another agency. The retired official then began to access records using the Freedom of Information Act and found that the results had indeed found methanol and diesel in the water from test wells. An in-depth analysis will reveal more details, said the retired official.
It is not the process itself which is harmful or wasteful. The precautions and actions required to make it a safe process are done in a less than efficient manner and that is a major contributor to ground water contamination. Another danger, agreed upon by geologists, is the danger of fracking carried out over fault lines inside the surface, which can trigger earthquakes, as observed by the USGS in Oklahoma. Although the process of hydraulic fracturing may cause only tiny earthquakes, it is still a potent dangerous side-effect.
(Zoback, p. 40) indicated that “shallow fracking is an even more dangerous method practiced in many areas such as generating seismic activities”. This effect brings the chemical mixed water much closer to the surface with an even greater chance of ground water contamination than that caused by wells which are dug up to a mile or deeper. Shallow hydraulic fracturing becomes an even critical problem because contamination can occur even if there is adequate insulation provided for the well. At present, ther...