Fracking: Natural Gas and Hydraulic Fracturing
Hydraulic Fracturing
Over the past few decades, the United States has become heavily reliant on using nonrenewable resources. The excessive uses of these resources, such as coal, are extremely harmful to the environment and can be considered responsible for global climate change and the destruction of a once healthy atmosphere. Some companies have claimed to find a “clean” source of energy called natural gas, found deep within the Earth’s crust. Commercials created by these companies state that natural gas is easy retrieve, cheap and clean burning. However, these commercials fail to explain that one of the processes of retrieving natural gas, or hydraulic fracturing, is extremely harmful to the environment. Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, is the process of injecting millions of gallons of water into the ground to crack shale rock around a gas well. When the shale rocks around the wells are cracked, it allows natural gas, specifically methane, to flow into the wells. To fracture the shale rock, the water injected into the ground has to be at a very high pressure and is loaded with sand and about 40,000 gallons of 600 different dangerous chemicals. Once the natural gas has flown into the underground well, it can be extracted and stored in tanks above ground to later be used as an energy source. Fracking for a source of energy is occurring all over the United States. Several masses of shale rock are all over the county, such as the Mancos shale in Utah and Colorado; the New Albany shale in Illinois and Kentucky; and the largest shale in the country, the Marcellus Shale. The Marcellus Shale stretches over Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia. Large portions of the Marcellus Shale are in New York and Pennsylvania, and the shale rock in these areas have started to be fractured to allow natural gas to flow into freshly drilled wells. These sites have had an extremely negative effect on the biosphere in these surrounding
Over the past few decades, the United States has become heavily reliant on using nonrenewable resources. The excessive uses of these resources, such as coal, are extremely harmful to the environment and can be considered responsible for global climate change and the destruction of a once healthy atmosphere. Some companies have claimed to find a “clean” source of energy called natural gas, found deep within the Earth’s crust. Commercials created by these companies state that natural gas is easy retrieve, cheap and clean burning. However, these commercials fail to explain that one of the processes of retrieving natural gas, or hydraulic fracturing, is extremely harmful to the environment. Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, is the process of injecting millions of gallons of water into the ground to crack shale rock around a gas well. When the shale rocks around the wells are cracked, it allows natural gas, specifically methane, to flow into the wells. To fracture the shale rock, the water injected into the ground has to be at a very high pressure and is loaded with sand and about 40,000 gallons of 600 different dangerous chemicals. Once the natural gas has flown into the underground well, it can be extracted and stored in tanks above ground to later be used as an energy source. Fracking for a source of energy is occurring all over the United States. Several masses of shale rock are all over the county, such as the Mancos shale in Utah and Colorado; the New Albany shale in Illinois and Kentucky; and the largest shale in the country, the Marcellus Shale. The Marcellus Shale stretches over Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia. Large portions of the Marcellus Shale are in New York and Pennsylvania, and the shale rock in these areas have started to be fractured to allow natural gas to flow into freshly drilled wells. These sites have had an extremely negative effect on the biosphere in these surrounding