Its a Fracking Problem free essay sample

Fracking is increasing in the U. S. , but with this increase of natural gas comes an increase of safety concerns. The process of hydraulic fracking requires chemicals that can affect the families that live nearby. These chemicals also affect the environment on the land and in the air. With fracking there comes its positives and its negatives, some good and some bad. There are very few regulations on how fracking can be done, but in the regulations there isnt much help. Fracking for natural gas needs to be further regulated before it can continue. Fracking is the process of drilling and injecting fracking fluid into the ground at high pressures in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas. The fracking procedure is different than the usual oil technique used to get oil. First, they drill vertically into the ground. After drilling, they inject chemicals, water and sand into the well. We will write a custom essay sample on Its a Fracking Problem or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When the shale rock is finally cracked they begin extracting the natural gas. There are more than 500,000 active natural gas wells in the U. S. (Dangers of Fracking). The materials required at a fracking site are large amounts of water and sand. A fracking site needs one to eight million gallons of water and about four million pounds of sand (Dangers of Fracking). The graph below shows the process of how fracking is done. (cite). The water, sand, and fracking fluid that is put into the ground during the fracking procedure can have serious health effects. These materials have certain chemicals in them that can cause problems to families. The sand used in the process is â€Å"silica sand†. When the sand is blasted into wells, dust is released and goes into the air. With the sand particles now in the air, they can sometimes travel and affect people near the site. Effects from the â€Å"silica sand are silicosis and lung cancer†. â€Å"Silicosis could take years, even decades to appear and cannot be reversed or cured†. Problems with the silica in the air is the air is that some families live near these sites. There are very few regulations on amount of silica that can be allowed in the air (Peeples). The fracking fluid used contains chemicals like: benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (Dangers of Fracking). Some of these chemicals are used for explosives, drugs and pesticides. A family’s drinking water was so contaminated with chemicals that their water begun â€Å"bubbling like champagne† and their well contained â€Å"so much methane that the water pouring out of a garden hose could be ignited† (Thomas). The fracking fluid that was leaked or left over has also effected farmers. A farmer did a study with a heard of his cows. He separated two groups of cows one containing sixty cows and the other only containing thirty six. Of the cows that were exposed to water that had fracking fluid in it twenty one had died and sixteen were unable to produce calves in the spring. The cows that were separated from the water containing fracking fluid had no health problems to them (Ramanujan). With all the serious health effects caused from improper fracking why hasnt anyone done anything to stop companies from disposing the chemicals improperly. â€Å"Fracking has already drawn considerable scrutiny from environmental groups, unhappy homeowners, and teams of lawyers who blame the drilling method for polluting pristine rivers, turning bucolic farmlands into noisy industrial zones, and leaking enough methane to make ordinary tap water as flammable as lighter fluid† (Hydrofracking). The main concern that is brought up by fracking is if it is safe enough for families and the environment. A personal interview was conducted on Joe Nye who is a member of the Clean Water Action group. He was asked â€Å"Will there ever be a safe way to still use hydraulic fracking? †. Joe’s response was â€Å"No way to know, but we do know that the current way is not safe enough to label it safe. We need to focus on truly safe sources of energy like wind and solar power and an emphasis on electric cars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the negative and devastating effects of climate change† (Nye). In the environment the ground water and the air are the most effected from fracking. Chemicals can leak from the wells and get into the earths aquifer. The aquifer contains all of earths drinking water. It also contains water that is used for our crops. Fracking also affects the air. Since there are few regulations smog is produced where high areas of fracking occur and where there are snowy places. The chemicals that are used in fracking are stored in areas called â€Å"frac pits† (Nye). â€Å"The exemption for the natural gas industry in the Clean Air Act allows drillers to dump an unknown amount of toxic pollution into our air, sometimes just a football field away from your house. Because of this, we’re seeing worse air quality and dirty air in the Wyoming plains that we find in Los Angeles† (Brune). Another effect that can occur from fracking are earthquakes. A Canadian news article said â€Å"There has been two studies that have confirmed that earthquakes can be caused by fracking. The earthquakes had not directly been caused by the fracking process but the waste water disposed improperly† (Earthquakes). There are ways though to help decrease the occurrence of earthquakes and smog in an area. Regulations have been made to stop companys from releasing too much chemicals into the ground. A bill that was introduced that says â€Å"Companies would now have to submit independent reviews of their operation† (USA Today). More bills state â€Å"That in California they would temporarily stop hydrofracking in aquifers†. (calf). They also stated â€Å"The company would also have to give a list of the chemicals that are actually going into the ground† (calf). These small regulations and rules may not seem like much, but overtime they will hep protect the environment. People for fracking state that fracking will supply the U. S. with more natural gas and decrease the United States dependency on foreign oil, but is the Unites States actually keeping all of it? Fracking has many disadvantages, but it also has a few advantages as well. Fracking allows for people to reach otherwise unattainable gas. With people able to reach this natural gas, it will cut down the United States dependence on other countrys oil. Another positive for fracking is that it creates jobs for the economy. If more jobs are created, that means that more Americans are working and that the economy is improving. Also with fracking the natural gas produced from drilling is cleaner to burn then coal, thats if burned properly. Even though these positives seem wonderful the negatives of fracking still out rule its positives. Every site that is built uses large amounts of water and land. The positives seem great for the U. S. , but are the negatives really worth the positives? The use of hydrofracking is rapidly increasing as a main way to get natural gas out of the ground. With fracking increasing so quickly there are going to be supporters for both for and against it. What fracking actually is, is a process in which a mixture of water, sand and chemicals is blasted into the ground at high pressures to extract natural gas trapped in the shale rock. The process seems safe and easy to keep in control, but many times wells end up leaking and going in to the ground and peoples drinking water. Also if the fracking fluid is disposed improperly it could get into the air and travel away from the original site to families. Families that are exposed to this toxic air are in danger of acquiring silicosis or even lung cancer (Peeples). Although there are these negative effect there are still some positives to look at. With fracking comes and increase in jobs for the U. S. and also and increase in the United States economy. As the United States economy gets better, they can slowly work away at the huge debt they our in.