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Fracking Research Paper

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Today there is great demand for natural gases and oils, we use them every day from our cars to running appliances in our houses. We have developed skills and techniques to extracting these gases and oils. One technique is Hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic Fracturing also known as Fracking. Fracking has many dangers to it from polluting water supply, land and even air.
Hydraulic fracturing has become one of the most common ways to extract natural gases, it is used in 9 out 10 gas wells in the United States (what is hydraulic fracturing?). It is also one of the most devastating ways to get it. The Fracking process uses millions of gallons of water sand and up to 600 different chemicals are pumped under ground hundreds of thousands of feet to …show more content…

Unlike straight drilling for oil or gas, that uses little space, hydraulic fracturing is drilled vertically and horizontally requiring more land needed for this process. There is a risk that with shooting these chemicals, water and sand at high pressures to fracture these hard rocks could cause a geological disturbance either from the shifting of rocks or oil and natural gases being released. This can cause a shift in the land above and create dangerous sinkholes potentially injuring or killing a person. As well as sinkholes fracking also can cause more earthquake proneness. In one case an earthquake in Oklahoma caused by drilling was responsible for the destruction of 14 homes and also a much higher frequency of earth quakes in this region (9 Good Reasons to Ban Fracking Immediately). Fracking is only increasing destruction of property and roads and increase the chances for injury to …show more content…

“The waste fluids is left in open air pits to evaporate, releasing harmful VOC’s(violent organic compounds)into the atmosphere, creating contaminated air, acid rain, and ground level ozone”(What Goes In and Out Of Hydraulic Fracking). This air pollution can cause serious health condition such as blood disorder, respiratory problems, birth defects and cancer and several others (Is Fracking Polluting the Air). There have been over 1,000 documented cases of water pollution that is located near gas drilling wells (What Goes In and Out Of Hydraulic Fracturing) most recently there has been a huge energy boom in these four states Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Texas were there has been a large amount of reports of contaminated well water. The McMickens were one of three families that reached 1.6 million settlements with the drilling companies.
(4 States Confirm Water Pollution from Drilling). There have been many other states with the same reported problems and complaints only increase as more hydraulic fracturing wells are being dug. In many cases the water of residents become flammable when touched by a flame this is due to the chemicals that have leached out into the wells of peoples

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