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The Best Science Writing Online 2012
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
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That's the sound of fracking—pumping a mix of water, sand and chemicals a mile or more into the Earth to shatter shale deposits and release the natural gas within.
From the Barnett shale in Texas to the "supergiant" Marcellus shale that stretches from West Virginia to New York State, so much natural gas has been found that the U.S. may have enough to burn for 100 years or more. And burning natural gas releases 43 percent less CO2 than burning coal.
Fort Worth has transitioned from cow town to gas town. It's the booming capital of fracking with thousands of wells within city limits. But fracking comes with a cost.
In addition to water use, there's the problem of what to do with the brine and chemicals left over afterwards. Bad drilling lets natural gas seep up to drinking water aquifers and wells, causing some taps to literally burn . And independent testing has shown toxic gas levels hundreds of times higher than safe limits in nearby DISH, Tex.
Fracking may have a lot of upside , but such fossil-fuel exploration and exploitation has to be done right. Or we'll have a fracking mess on our hands.
—David Biello
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15 Comments
Add CommentI'll be glad to frack for natural gas. :-)Sounds like a win, win to me!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou got that right, that is exactly what the natural gas companies are doing to us. West Virginia has a great abundance of natural gas and the companies are still fracking us.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCould fracking reduce the impact of earthquakes?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA fractured mantle would absorb some of the shock when a natural fracture occurs in the mantle.
I see a bunch of sinkholes in the future.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Frack Youself"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBe energy independent with our HOME FRACKING UNIT!
If you live on top of the shale---Frack It!
contact: Frack You Industries, a division of Big Oil Inc
FRACK YOURSELF
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBecome energy independent with our new HOME FRACKER!
If you live on the shale---Frack it!
contact: Frack You Industries, a division of Big Oil Inc.
Could too much of the fracking caus earth quakes?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHey folks, look it up: fracking has already caused earthquakes, especially in Texas. Unfortunately, Scientific American hasn't done their research. There is no way fracking can be "done right" if that means no harm to the environment, public health, and future generations. The toxic chemicals make this an inherently harmful, contaminating process. There are already 100 chemicals in American babies' bodies at birth and this just dumps more, with inevitable long-term harm. Halliburton and co. are fighting hard, spending millions a month lobbying against the FRAC Act which would lift fracking exemptions in the Safe Drinking Water Act. We need a national moratorium on fracking until ALL the federal fracking exemptions including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Superfund Act and waste treatment laws have been lifted. If it was safe, it wouldn't need to be exempt from every federal environmental law that matters.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisClarification: the moratorium should be specifically on hydraulic fracturing in combination with horizontal drilling as long as hundreds of "proprietary" chemicals, many of them acutely hazardous and toxic, are used in proportions that remain legally secret, preventing effective research and regulation of dangerous contaminants. This process is specific to shale gas drilling, or unconventional reserves. Not enough is known about fracking for shale gas, since it has only been done in this country for five years, whereas fracking conventional gas sources has been going on for sixty years. The federal exemptions were inserted into the 2005 Energy bill and are collectively known as the "Halliburton loophole." This loophole paved the way for externalizing all the environmental and public health costs created by fracking unconventional shale gas reserves, enabling shale gas drillers to reap incredible profits at the expense of public health. That's why we need a moratorium on shale gas drilling right now until the exemptions are lifted and the research is in. Long-term cumulative impacts on the environment and on human bodies must be investigated and reported so that shale gas fracking, if it is to be done at all, could be done safely. It is not being done safely now; it's causing streams to dry up, fish kills, forest and wetland destruction, animal deaths, human sickness and cancers, even in this early stage; as well as destruction of habitat, tourism, and roads; it causes erosion, stormwater runoff, divided communities, and pollution of water, land and air. All this for methane, a greenhouse gas which traps 20-25 times more heat than CO2! Methane already contributes one-third to global warming. Stop, look, listen. Profits may result but we can't breathe or drink money -- we need clean air and clean water.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI used to be a Fracker, and work with Frackturing. Please believe me when I say 40% some percent less c02 than coal, and an abundance of it, is still not worth exploiting this type of UNSUSTAINABLE energy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have been on sites where we burned off, to asses the viability of a well, enough raw natural gas with who knows what impurities in it, to heat and power a city of 40,000-60,000, for a months, all in a 24-48h burn. The flame coming off the flare tower, that was a 6" tube pointing straight up, was coming out with such force that the gas couldn't light for 30 feet of so, and flame above that was over a 100 feet tall. It was so intense that it melted the 5-6 snow berm, thawed the ground, and dried the mud in less than 24 hours, in about a 100m circle, all at -25 C.
You you tell me that the thousands of wells in my area, all being tested this way aren't effecting our air quality, and or water quality. Not to mention the fact that I live in a fairly sour area. So not only are they burning off millions of tones of gas, but that gas is a highly potent poisonous gas that one inhalation of the this gas will kill even at low concentrations.
And that is not even thinking about the thousands of litters of diesel burned by the hundreds of trucks, that drive in and out to a site during the survey, then the logging to clear the site and the thousands of km of roads to connect all of these sites together. Then send in the drillers, rathole and well, with the cementers to install a well head. Then a crew of testers to burn test the potential of that well, usually with a crew of wireliners and a crew of Fracers. Sometimes consisting of 50 or more tractor trailer units, and 100 or more men. All of which they do for each well just to see if each well might have the output capacity to pay itself off eventually. And now we have 300mX300m clear cuts, no more than 1km apart all over the land scape, plus all the roads to connect them to the nearest access. And only a fraction of these prove to be "worth it" to the oil company's. And we still haven't even connected these wells to the refineries or to peoples homes yet.
And people wonder why oil & gas are so expensive???
I used to be a Fracker, and work with Frackturing. Please believe me when I say 40% some percent less c02 than coal, and an abundance of it, is still not worth exploiting this type of UNSUSTAINABLE energy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have been on sites where we burned off, to asses the viability of a well, enough raw natural gas with who knows what impurities in it, to heat and power a city of 40,000-60,000, for a months, all in a 24-48h burn. The flame coming off the flare tower, that was a 6" tube pointing straight up, was coming out with such force that the gas couldn't light for 30 feet of so, and flame above that was over a 100 feet tall. It was so intense that it melted the 5-6 snow berm, thawed the ground, and dried the mud in less than 24 hours, in about a 100m circle, all at -25 C.
You you tell me that the thousands of wells in my area, all being tested this way aren't effecting our air quality, and or water quality. Not to mention the fact that I live in a fairly sour area. So not only are they burning off millions of tones of gas, but that gas is a highly potent poisonous gas that one inhalation of the this gas will kill even at low concentrations.
And that is not even thinking about the thousands of litters of diesel burned by the hundreds of trucks, that drive in and out to a site during the survey, then the logging to clear the site and the thousands of km of roads to connect all of these sites together. Then send in the drillers, rathole and well, with the cementers to install a well head. Then a crew of testers to burn test the potential of that well, usually with a crew of wireliners and a crew of Fracers. Sometimes consisting of 50 or more tractor trailer units, and 100 or more men. All of which they do for each well just to see if each well might have the output capacity to pay itself off eventually. And now we have 300mX300m clear cuts, no more than 1km apart all over the land scape, plus all the roads to connect them to the nearest access. And only a fraction of these prove to be "worth it" to the oil company's. And we still haven't even connected these wells to the refineries or to peoples homes yet.
And people wonder why oil & gas are so expensive???
Hey redbeard, thank you for your comment, your honesty and completeness. I hope Scientific American is reading you too. Where is your area that you refer to by the way? Please continue to speak out, write letters to the editor, call up journalists and talk to them directly, and tell people what is going on as much as you have energy for. It matters tremendously because most people don't know what you know. Thanks. protectingourwaters@gmail.com
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think that your story sets the right tone for talking about natural gas. The fact remains that natural gas has a huge place in our transition to a clean energy future but at the same time we have to be sure that it is responsibly produced. There is a documentary film out now that takes an objective look at the natural gas issue: http://www.haynesvillemovie.com/
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe used to love the americans. They saves us from Hitler, Stalin aso.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe do not terribly hate the over-use of hydrocarbons - more than anybody in the world per capita - as long as You protect us against Sadams and Almadinejads and Kims aso.
If You use our shale-gas aso and become less dependent of the Arabs (and Norwegians and Venezolans etc) our petrol will get cheaper, we thank You for that.
But maybee You should care a little for Yourselves and Your kids??
Very kind regards and damm the Yankee-haters.
What part of rock is denser than water do these supposed 'scientists' not understand? When you pump water into something denser than the water. Guess what? The water moves up and floats on top of the denser layer. Throw a rock into a lake does it float? Do the oceans, lakes and river move down into the denser rock beneath? No they do not, rock is denser than water and all those chemicals and water will migrate upwards till it reaches an area with the same density i.e. the water table. Believe the propaganda if you wish just don't expect intelligent people to believe it.
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