There are myriad potential solutions to the energy crisis. You’ve undoubtedly heard debate over the merits of wind power, fuel cells, solar power, biofuels and geothermal energy — all of which have their benefits and drawbacks — but each is worth serious consideration. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is another way to alleviate the problem of our dwindling supply of gasoline. However, unlike other options, fracking has very little benefit and poses very great risks that need to be investigated in more depth before it should continue.
Fracking is a method of extracting natural gas from deep in the earth. A hole is drilled thousands of feet into the ground to get to the shale layer. Then, a mixture of water, sand and other chemicals are injected into that hole. The mixture creates pressure in the earth, which creates cracks in the rock. When the pressure is released, natural gas comes out of the cracks and up through the hole that was drilled. The gas is then stored and used.
Although natural gas is cleaner and more efficient than oil, it’s still not a good alternative. It’s a fossil fuel, and it will run out eventually. Also, although methane isn’t a pollutant, it contributes to the greenhouse effect. Overall, we would be better off focusing on renewable energy. However, the use of natural gas itself isn’t the main problem.
One issue with fracking is that not all of the water pumped into the earth is removed. A good deal of it is, but the water that remains can still do harm. Some of it seeps into the earth and ends up in watersheds. At this point, it is not suitable for drinking — it is contaminated with methane and chemicals used in the fracking process. A study at Duke University found that water from areas that are in proximity to fracking sites contain up to 17 percent more methane than water from areas that are not close to any fracking sites. The one flaw in the study is that, since the study took place after fracking sites had been established, it was impossible to compare methane levels in the water before and after fracking.
Another problem caused by fracking is seismic activity. Pushing fluid deep underground can put pressure on fault lines. The largest earthquake produced immediately after and clearly linked to fracking was magnitude 3.6. Although that earthquake wasn’t large enough to cause damage, it can make it easier for more serious earthquakes to happen months later because the fault lines have been stressed and weakened from the pressure. Long-distance triggering is a phenomenon in which a severe earthquake triggers a moderate one somewhere else in the world. Triggered earthquakes usually happen in areas where there have been weakened fault lines, sometimes because of humans drilling deep into the earth. For example, March 2011 in Japan, a 9.1 earthquake triggered a few earthquakes near oil drilling sites in Texas. Fracking sites could also be vulnerable.
To accurately determine the damage caused by fracking, the area needs to be surveyed before fracking begins. Water quality, seismic activity and the general health of the population should all be measured before fracking begins and compared to the numbers after the fracking has taken place for a while. Ideally, people would stop fracking and oil drilling and look for other solutions to the energy crisis, but perhaps the data that could be gleaned from a survey like this would push people in the right direction.