Fracking is a method of extracting oil and natural gas from deep underground. Some say it is safe and an asset to the U.S. economy while others argue it has the potential to contaminate ground water and harm communities by causing extensive health issues and decreasing property values.
It's done by creating horizontal "veins" off a vertical well and then pumping that horizontal well full of water and fracking fluid at an extremely high pressure.
This causes fissures in the rock that branch off, releasing gas, oil or water into the cracks created. The gases and oils are forced into the horizontal wells and then flow up to storage tanks with the water that comes back up.
A documentary called "Gasland" shows people across the nation who live near fracking wells lighting their tap water on fire and saying it has destroyed their wells and their lives.
Some experts believe other factors are to blame and say there is no scientific data showing these things are a result of fracking.
John Norton, who lives 40 miles south of Austin, just over the boundary line into Nye County, attended the March 27 and April 10 county commission meetings to plead with commissioners to take action against the BLM's July 17 oil and gas lease sale. He is an outspoken opponent of the controversial method.
"Wherever they have attempted this new technology, it has failed miserably," Norton said March 27. "The latest catastrophes are in Wyoming. Some of the most beautiful cattle ranches you have ever seen in your life are gone. The water is contaminated. The air is contaminated. If for no other reason, than morally, we should have this sale withdrawn for the sake of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren that we're going to leave behind. This stuff may not hurt the surface for 30 or 40 years but it will hit the surface and when it does, the Reese River, which is part of the water that comes down to you guys, is going to be gone. It's going to be toast and without water, you can't have life. It's an essential ingredient."
Norton said after the meeting he is retired and he and his wife, Susan, moved to their property because it is a beautiful area and they wanted peace and quiet.
"Anybody who wants to mess around with the water is nuts," he said.
Norton said at the April 10 commission meeting that the BLM is asking the county to risk the asset of clean water for no reward.
"How can that be?" he asked. "This stuff will go through a crack in glass. It'll eat rock. Ten years from now, 20 years from now, who knows? Will it come to the surface? I wouldn't want to bet against it. I wouldn't want to have my fingerprints on it. It all depends on the water 50 years from now. Clean water is life in Nevada and without it, you don't have any life."
Over the past few years, advances in fracking technology have made tremendous reserves of natural gas in the United States economically recoverable for the first time.
Daniel Simmons, director of State Affairs at the Institute for Energy Research, said online that the increase in domestic production has kept prices low for American consumers, who get 24 percent of their electricity from natural gas when not too long ago it was considered the U.S. was running out of gas supplies.
According to the Energy Information Administration, shale gas plays, or fields, in the United States are said to contain enough natural gas to power the country for 110 years. With the enticing specter of energy independence in the balance, some have argued that such efforts to recover natural gas need to be expanded.
Jon Olson, associate professor in the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Austin, said online that he is in favor of fracking and that according to the EPA, natural gas electricity generation produces half the carbon dioxide of coal, less than a third of the nitrogen oxides and 1 percent of the sulfur oxides.
"Best practices in natural gas drilling provide multiple lines of protection for groundwater resources," Olson said. "There have been problems, but they have been rare and most importantly, they are avoidable. Just like any other industrial activity, there are risks, but good engineering, in combination with sensible and effective regulation, reduces those risks to maximize societal benefit."
Olson said water usage is small compared to other domestic water consumers.
"Marcellus Shale gas development accounts for one one-hundredth of the domestic water usage rate in Pennsylvania and one fifth of what is used in the state solely to care for livestock," he said. "We are a big country with big energy needs. Natural gas is an energy solution that works today, at utility scale with current technology. Shale gas is the most promising natural resource find in decades. We should utilize it."
According to Josh Fox in the documentary, Gasland, "(Fracking) blasts a mixture of water and chemicals 8,000 feet into the ground. ... In order to frack, you need fracking fluid, which is a mix of over 596 chemicals."
The names of many of the chemicals have not been released to the public because they are considered proprietary.
In the documentary, families around the country interviewed by Fox, say fracking contaminated their ground water, causing sludge to come out of their faucets. A few families showed on camera that their tap water could be lit on fire.
Some families said they had lived in their homes with good water for decades and their water only became contaminated right after the fracking started. The video says there are no environmental regulations on fracking. However, according to a tutorial on the Department of Energy's website, a series of federal laws governs most environmental aspects of shale gas development. For example, the Clean Water Act regulates surface discharges of water associated with shale gas drilling and production, as well as storm water runoff from production sites.
It says the Safe Drinking Water Act regulates the underground injection of fluids from shale gas activities.
However, this is disputed in what is referred to at the "Halliburton Loophole," a provision in the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005. Under former President George Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney, fracking was exempted from significant EPA regulations. The loophole excludes fracking from the Safe Drinking Water Act and changed the definition of pollutant in the Clean Water Act.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, carefully constructed and operated well sites have the ability to contain potential spills and minimize runoff into surface waters, but oil and gas drilling is an industrial activity in which it is possible for accidents to occur that result in contamination of surface waters and near-surface aquifers.
Also according to the USGS, fracking fluids are believed to be the cause of the widespread death and distress of aquatic species in Kentucky's Acorn Fork, after spilling from nearby natural gas well sites.
According to the Washington Post, fracking caused "significant damage" to drinking-water aquifers in Dimock, Pa., a town that is in the center of a fight over the safety of fracking, outlined in a federal report.
The previously unreleased document from an employee at the EPA's regional office found that fracking caused methane to leak into domestic water wells in town.
The findings contradict Cabot Oil and Gas Corp., which drilled at the location and said the explosive methane gas was naturally occurring.
In April, Bob and Lisa Parr, of Wise County, Texas, won a $3 million judgment against an energy corporation, Aruba Petroleum, over damage to health and property caused by fracking operations. There are 22 fracking wells within two miles of the Parr's property.
The couple is not necessarily against fracking, just when it is done incorrectly, Bob Parr told the Bugle. They said their illnesses were caused through the air, not water contamination, he said.
Fracking chemicals were found in the couple's bloodstreams and they, along with Lisa's daughter, Emma, 11, all suffered nose bleeds, headaches, blurred vision and neurological problems, Bob Parr said. He added that some nearby cattle were born dead and hairless.
The fracking wells near the Parr's now have attachments that purify the air and the family has gotten better but they still suffer from some neurological issues, Bob Parr said.
"I don't like the fact that it ruins the earth," Lisa Parr said. "If it is going to impact people's health and if it is going to damage the earth and wildlife then find a better way to do it before you start. The proof is in the pudding. What they did to us is not safe."
Contact Heather Hill at h.hill@winnemuccapublishing.net.[[In-content Ad]]
