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Water usage by fracking can be a problem in areas that experience water shortage. Surface water may be contaminated through spillage and improperly built and maintained waste pits, in jurisdictions where these are permitted. [9] Further, ground water can be contaminated if fracturing fluids and formation fluids are able to escape during ...
Environmental impact of fracking in the United States has been an issue of public concern, and includes the contamination of ground and surface water, methane emissions, [1] air pollution, migration of gases and fracking chemicals and radionuclides to the surface, the potential mishandling of solid waste, drill cuttings, increased seismicity and associated effects on human and ecosystem health.
Environmental Protection Agency illustration of the water cycle of hydraulic fracturing. Fracking in the United States began in 1949. [1] According to the Department of Energy (DOE), by 2013 at least two million oil and gas wells in the US had been hydraulically fractured, and that of new wells being drilled, up to 95% are hydraulically fractured.
Why is fracking controversial? Activists and environmentalists have long opposed fracking, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences' website on fracking points out just a few of ...
Fracking has been linked to childhood cancer, water pollution and earthquakes The practice of fracking has been linked to significant health issues in communities that live nearby, ranging from ...
Chemicals used for fracking may travel through cracks in the rock into an underground drinking water source and contamination could also occur if a well is improperly installed, if chemicals are ...
The oil and gas industry supports the idea that states should control the regulatory specificities of fracking. [51] Some contend that these exemptions are carefully analyzed. A 2004 EPA study concluded that fracking injection in coalbed methane wells "posed little or no threat to drinking water;" the study has since been contraverted.
Many people have heard the term "fracking" and how it is the future of the U.S. economy, but know very little about what it actually entails. The motivations of the various sides in the debate ...