Photo: Tod Baker
The Marcellus Shale is a rock layer in New York, Pennsylvania and the southern Appalachian states that is very rich in unoxidized carbon. Some geologists predict this rock layer could contain between 168 and 516 trillion cubic feet of natural gas; this amount of gas would be the world’s second largest gas supply and could meet the nation's natural gas needs for more than two decades.
Photo: via onearth
Unfortunately, the gas is caught up in thousands of tiny little pores and to force the natural gas out of shale or rock, it must undergo a process called hydrofracking (otherwise known as hydraulic fracturing) where millions of gallons of fresh, drinkable water are forced through a pipe drilled into the shale. A variety of chemicals are added to the water to keep the fractures in the shale open and keep the gas flowing to the surface.
Photo: via kittanningpaper
While there is no complete list of the cocktail of chemicals used in this process (the industry views its chemical recipes as trade secrets and they're not required to disclose them), information obtained from environmental clean-up sites shows that known toxins being used include hydrochloric acid, diesel fuel (which contains benzene, tuolene and xylene) as well as formaldehyde, polyacrylimides and chromates. These chemicals include known carcinogens like the cancer-causing benzene and other hazardous substances. To give you an idea how bad this stuff is for you: The U.S. Department of Energy lists produced water from gas drilling as among the most toxic of any oil industry byproduct.
Photo: Daniel Foster
When a well is fracked, somewhere between 20-40% of the millions of gallons of contaminated water return to the surface, leaving 60-80% of the contaminated water in the ground. The frack water that is returned to the surface is pumped into a holding pond where it is hazardous in the short term: Plastic liners tear or are punctured, impoundment walls may give way, heavy rains may cause the fluids to overflow into soils and nearby water bodies, and those volatile chemicals evaporate into the air with adverse effects on air quality and human health.
Photo: vie un-naturalgas
Even if no mishaps occur, the frack water must be treated to have the chemicals removed, but our waste-water treatment plants are already overburdened and are designed to treat biological, not chemical, waste water, so for the time being, we seem to be “stuck” with all of this highly toxic waste with no proven save clean-up method available.
To top all this off, as of right now this industry is largely unregulated because in 2005, when the Energy Act was passed, it contained what has been called the “Halliburton Loophole.” With this loophole, the 2005 Energy Act allowed hydrofracking fluid content to be classified as a trade secret, so the chemicals used need not be disclosed. Sadly, hydrofracking practices were also exempted from regulation under the US Safe Drinking Water Act and other statutes.
If left to run unregulated, the natural gas drilling industry could be the biggest environmental disaster to date doing mass damage that is unaccounted for, not just to our environment but also to our health.
Photo: via examiner
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