First, there was the Gold Rush. Everyone was trying to get a piece of the action and find their fortune. After that, came the oil boom. A few lucky ones made huge fortunes. Now, we have the fracking boom. Fracking is being billed as the savior of everything from freeing countries from energy dependence on oil to putting almost anyone who wants a job to work. It seems, though, most of this hype is coming from the oil and gas industry and many of the politicians in their corner. What exactly is fracking and what is really happening?
In simple terms, fracking involves creating fractures in the earth, mostly in layers of shale rock, to free the gas and oil that is trapped between the layers. It is similar to oil drilling in that drilling a well into the earth is the first step. Then, the drill bit is turned to create horizontal wells shafts. However, in fracking, after the well is drilled, huge amounts of water, chemicals, and sand are pumped into the well at tremendous pressure to blow apart the shale rock and create fractures to free the trapped gas. Then, the oil and gas are pumped out of the well, and so are the millions of gallons of toxic and contaminated fracking fluids.
Fracking is not a new technology developed by some of the most brilliant scientists working for oil and gas companies. Similar operations have been around since back in the 1800s. Some actually used to send explosives down the wells to blow up and fracture the rocks to give up their oil. Fracking with regular wells combined with injecting fluids and sand to increase yields was used from the 1940s through the end of the century. George Mitchell was one of the pioneers of combining horizontal drilling with injecting fluids around 2005. The new methods of fracking involve drilling down to a certain depth and then turning the drill bit 90 degrees to drill a horizontal shaft thousands of feet long. The idea is, once the fracking fluids are sent down the well at high pressure, many fractures and rocks yielding gas and oil will be made all along the shafts. With the new technique, yields skyrocketed and shale gas drilling boomed.
For years once the boom started, it seemed everywhere a shale formation was mapped underground, people were racing to frack the area. It happened so fast that people were convinced the industry knew what it was doing and that fracking was as safe as they said. People who owned property in these shale deposit areas were told by drilling companies they could get rich by allowing drilling on their lands. What was never told to almost all of these unsuspecting people was the environmental consequences fracking was known to be causing elsewhere.
Many people, especially those in the industry, are declaring this the biggest oil boom ever. They may be correct about the tremendous increase in gas and oil this country has seen in many years. But, with it has come a tremendous number of people affected with health problems by the new toxic legacy currently being created. Where the fracking industry was once viewed as a positive for a community, now their promises of only good things to come are seen as the lies they always were.
The fracking industry has told people for years that they do not emit harmful pollutants. Back in the beginning of the boom in 2005, many people, seduced by promises of money, took the industry at its word. The evidence compiled now after over 10 years of almost uncontrolled fracking is indisputable proof against their claims.
Despite the cash, resources, and political clout the industry has been using to keep the fracking boom going, it’s time for it to end. Or, at minimum, it’s time to enact some real regulations protecting people’s health and the environment. There are states and communities banning fracking. Some weak regulations have been put in place along with a tiny bit of oversight, but these measures are not enough. Unfortunately, the current larger political climate is not in favor of the environment and puts industry’s health over the people.
Fracking wells emit various quantities of ozone. When we hear about ozone, we mostly hear about the ozone layer high in the sky; ground ozone is as much or more of a serious problem. Much of the smog hanging over some large cities is made of ozone. High levels of ground ozone increase the risks of asthma, strokes, and heart attacks. When research and testing was done in areas where fracking produced high levels of ground ozone, there were noticeably higher levels of asthma and heart-related issues. Some studies showed pregnant women in these areas having more premature births, birth defects, and babies born smaller than they should have been.
In areas of some rural states where fracking activity is very high, levels of ground ozone have been measured higher than in Los Angeles and other large metropolitan areas.
In addition to ozone, fracking creates volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. Basically, these are the chemicals in the air we smell when we are in a gas station pumping our gas. Fracking releases VOCs including toluene, benzene, and n-hexane. Long-term effects of VOC exposure include damage to the kidneys, liver, and the nervous system. VOC exposure has also been known to cause cancer. In fact, benzene is known to cause cancer on its own. On top of all of this, VOC exposure is linked to birth defects, blood disorders, and neurological problems.
In one year, Uintah county, Utah, emitted VOCs estimated to be equal to the emissions of 100 million exhaust-belching automobiles. A study done in this area by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated between 6 and 12% of the gas produced in this heavy fracking region was actually escaping into the atmosphere.
In February of 2018, a fracking well owned by Exxon had a failure that resulted in one of the largest blowouts in the world. The well in southeast Ohio leaked methane for almost three weeks, totaling more methane than all the gas and oil industry in a country the size of France emits in an entire year. The cause of the blowout was attributed to degradation in the walls of the well, usually called casing failing. Many fracking wells, such as this one, only have casing for the first 20-30% of the well shaft. Because the cost of the casing may be as high as 30% of the well cost, the fracking industry tries to skimp as much as they can. There are no regulations requiring the entire well have casing so only the bare minimum is used.
Even when there are casings along the entire length of the well, that alone does not solve the problem. Oil and gas fracking wells use tremendous pressure to inject the toxic fracking fluids deep underground to create the stress on the rock structure to fracture itself. The pressure in the well cases are increasingly also fracturing the casings, allowing these blowouts and allowing fluids to escape into the upper layers of soil and rock the well passes through. More well failures have been occurring at an alarmingly increasing rate as the industry rushes to drill and pump and move on as quickly and profitably as possible.
One of the biggest threats to any community is the loss of a safe, dependable supply of drinking water. The pollution in the air may eventually clear long after the drilling equipment is abandoned, but the contamination of the water resulting from fracking will remain for possibly generations.
The fracking industry is water-intensive. They pull millions of gallons of pure, clean, irreplaceable water from aquifers that normally would be able to supply local towns and cities for many more years to come. They take our clean water and add their toxic fracking chemicals to it, then pump it down into the oil and gas wells. Once it shatters the rocks, it gets pumped up again from the well. This time, though, the originally fresh, clean water, the water they’d already poisoned with toxic fracking chemicals, is even more contaminated. Radioactive elements such as radium, strontium, uranium, and radon as well as heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, and iron get into the water.
A study done by Duke University reviewed test results from 60 different sites in New York and Pennsylvania. They looked at the relation between the distance from where gas wells were drilled and the level of methane gas found in residents’ private water wells. They discovered that wells located closer than one half mile to the drilling activity contained 17 times higher methane levels than those further away.
In Dimock, Pennsylvania, back in 2008, residents saw their tap water turn a funny shade of brown, and some said it made them sick when they drank it. This happened at the same time fracking became popular in their area. After much back and forth with health officials involving the EPA, results were published in a report. Of the 67 wells tested, 27 of them had levels of lead, cadmium, arsenic, and copper high enough to be a health risk. In addition, in 17 of those homes, water with levels of flammable gases high enough to explode was found. The fracking industry usually claims the gas comes from natural sources and is not caused by fracking. To Tony and me, the correlation is too strong to be just a coincidence.
In Washington County, Pennsylvania, there were two separate instances of contamination from a fracking operation, and the operators were caught concealing knowledge of it from the residents in the area and the public. The first case involved a fracking waste storage tank that had leaked over 2,000 gallons of waste into a field that drained to a nearby creek. The second incident turned into a huge legal case because of the health impact and was actually made into a movie. In that incident the storage pond the company created for the toxic fracking waste had tears in the liner and was leaking into the ground. Two company employees testified at the trial that the company knew the leakage had contaminated the groundwater but chose to do nothing for almost three years. They continued to pour waste into the pond, further contaminating the groundwater, which the area residents used as a drinking water source. Again, the company knew they had contaminated the water supply but continued to do nothing.
Residents suffered a variety of negative health effects from the chemicals: headaches, dizziness, terrible fatigue, nosebleeds, and rashes. In addition, they claimed the company had conspired with two testing laboratories to falsify results about the extent of the contamination. The battle went on for six years, and finally in 2018 the company agreed to settle with the families. This case opened up other evidence there were other oil and gas companies in the state also involved in criminal activities, and the Attorney General’s office began to pursue multiple investigations.
Fracking companies claim the fluids they use are safe. The standard talking line is that the fluid is almost entirely water. This is only true if we look at what percent volume are the toxic chemicals. The average we have been told is 2% of the chemicals are mixed into the water. The quantity of fracking fluids used in any one well totals in the millions of gallons, so because 2% are these dangerous chemicals, that’s thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals in total they admit to pumping into the ground.
As for what exactly these chemicals are, it’s hard to verify. There have been many studies looking at exactly what chemicals fracking companies use. The companies in question claimed their exact mix of chemicals is a company secret and they are legally allowed not to disclose it.
There have even been congressional investigations into determining what chemicals are used. One congressional investigation found 29 chemicals known to cause cancer and other serious health risks to people.
A report issued by a U.S. House of Representatives committee showed how difficult the problem is of identifying chemicals hidden behind the proprietary rules. The report found companies used 94 million gallons of 279 different products containing at least one secret ingredient. In many of these cases, when questioned, the companies themselves did not even know what the proprietary chemicals were.
A 2011 report to Congress estimated that from 2005 to 2009, 14 leading fracking companies used (before mixing with water) 780 million gallons of 750 different chemicals.
A study done by researchers at the University of Toledo identified 210 chemicals in the wastewater fracking creates, chemicals it therefore needs to dispose of. This is the same wastewater the federal government is seeking to loosen regulations on disposal of to allow it to simply be poured into the local streams and waterways. The researchers say there are still more chemicals to be discovered yet and the long-term effects of continuous exposure to them is nowhere yet known. Some of the worst chemicals found already included atrazine (a pesticide), toluene, and VOCs linked to bladder, liver, lung, and skin cancers. The government allows this wastewater to be used to irrigate agricultural crops, so these hazardous chemicals are getting into the foods we consume. On a local basis, the chemicals get into the groundwater used for drinking water, and any local produce the chemicals were used on goes on kitchen tables throughout the area.
Not only is the wastewater contaminated with chemicals, in many cases it is also contaminated with radioactive materials from the ground. Depending on the minerals encountered in the fracking well, the waste is subject to contain different materials at different levels. Many states have found their fracking waste has levels of radioactivity higher than can be disposed of in normal landfills and injection wells. The levels of radioactivity pose a high risk not only to people in the area but to the groundwater and environment.
It needs to be stated here that the waste is supposed to be disposed of in special landfills, but the industry is trying to get regular landfills to accept this along with everyday trash. Instead of ensuring this radioactive waste is disposed of safely, many states are raising the allowable radiation levels to have regular solid waste landfills be able to accept more of it. In effect, this allows more contaminated waste to be dumped. Industry groups are lobbying politicians to make these changes, and the landfill industry supports this as well.
On the federal level, these industry groups are fighting for changes that will allow millions of gallons of this waste to simply be piped and poured into local waterways near the wells. Industry groups claim they spend too much money transporting wastes for disposal. Being allowed to use more of the nation’s waterways as toilets would be to their benefit and increase profits. So far it appears the government is leaning towards that direction. On the state level, they’re already doing this in secret.
In Youngstown, Ohio, a trucking company saw its owner go to prison for telling his employees to drain truckloads of fracking waste into storm drains. The radioactive, contaminated waste eventually drained into the Mahoning River.
In Pennsylvania, a fracking waste transport company was caught dumping contaminated fracking waste into abandoned mines instead of disposing of it properly. The customers would pay, believing their waste was being legally disposed of. Illegal dumping had been going on for at least six years before the company was caught.
Water is a critical component in order to extract gas and oil through fracking. The drilling process alone can use up to 300,000 gallons of water per day. According to the Susquehanna River Basin Commission in Pennsylvania, fracking a well in their area may use up to eight million of gallons of water in just one week.
Wells in the area, including many municipal wells supplying water to entire towns, are subject to lowering of the groundwater level, and available water resources drying up. In areas where water is not as plentiful and residents already have drilled deep wells, fracking depletes their available water even further, at times lowering the water table and drying out the local wells residents depend on.
There is a fierce fight going on between fracking opponents and everyone else. The fracking industry and many politicians see continued fracking and the huge amounts of oil and gas it produces as essential for our future. Opponents include not just environmental groups but thousands of people whose health has already been affected by the dangers of fracking. The scales are currently tipping in favor of opponents of fracking armed with hundreds of studies and piles of evidence showing the effects of fracking. Sooner rather than later, something big is going to change. Whether it will be a ban on fracking or much tighter regulations on where it is allowed to take place, it has to change.
The threats to human health and the environment from fracking are finally being seen as they should be: dangerous, imminent, and alarming. Fracking and the oil industry are throwing the full weight of their power and money to stop any further regulations that could affect their bottom line. At the present time of writing in early 2020, there is a very large push by the fracking industry and the Trump administration to loosen and rewrite regulations on how fracking waste must be disposed of. If they are successful, millions of gallons of what presently is considered hazardous materials will be able to simply be disposed of in our surface waters. Making a full circle back to the disposal practices of the 1960s and ‘70s will do irreparable damage to the environment and health of millions of people.
Many towns are metaphorically drowning in the millions of gallons of toxic fracking waste. If there is fracking activity near where you live, be very concerned for the continued degradation of your air quality and water safety.
Living near fracking operations can be quite hazardous overall to your health. We recommend not being any closer than two miles from any active or proposed drilling areas. In addition, use caution if you are near waterways such as streams or rivers that may be used to dispose of fracking waste in. If you do have fracking activity near you, check your drinking water at minimum once a year if you have a public water supply and twice if you are using well water.