Yet more adverse side effects of fracking have been identified, as new research indicates that it could threaten water supplies in drought-prone areas.
Fracking is a controversial method of extracting gas reserves from underground seams, using high pressure water jets which are injected into the ground to fracture shale rocks and release the natural gas inside.
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A recent study investigating the side effects of hydraulic fracturing has found higher than normal levels of radioactivity, along with other contaminants such as salts and metals, in the waters of Blacklick Creek in Western Pennsylvania.
The report, which was published recently in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, analyzed sediments found in river water near a fracking waste water plant, and discovered 200 times more radium than one would expect to find in nature.
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Geologists have confirmed that the controversial process of fracturing rock to release trapped oil and gas reserves, otherwise known as ‘fracking’, can cause earthquakes. The rock is fractured using highly pressurized ‘injections’ of water, sand and other materials which creates fissures in the rock enabling the extraction of the gas and oil deposits. Chemicals such as hydrofluoric acid are also used to dissolve shale rock.
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The question is almost Shakespearian: We would hate to give up fracking, since it’s making us energy independent. But if this process of injecting water into shale in order to extract natural gas is setting off earthquakes, we have to face this fact. For instance, fracking has been linked to a 5.7 earthquake in 2011 in Oklahoma.
In fracking, water, sand and chemicals are injected into the ground in order to extract trapped natural gas.
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