You may be wondering what is fracking having heard of it from friends and colleagues. Well, this is a process employed by many gas and oil mining companies in their oil drilling operations. It is a process that stimulates an oil or gas well using a hydraulically pressurized liquid mixture. This mixture is commonly made up of water, sand and other chemicals which many companies have so far failed to disclose claiming proprietary measures. The use of water for fracking has had many controversies with environmental and health organizations due to its adverse effects.
The pressurized water together with the other substances in the liquid mixture is used to break rocks and create fractures in them. It is by this fractures that the oil and gas being mined flows out of the well freely. When the hydraulic pressure is withdrawn from the well, small proponents of the liquid mixture let say sand keeps the fractures open.
It consumes about 2 to 7 or 8 million water gallons to frack a one well in normal circumstances. However, contingent to the well type and size, more of this can be utilized. Some wells also need to be fracked out more than once and the result of this is that huge and massive quantities of liquid are drawn from our cycle for this purpose.
The utilization of large water amounts on this purpose means that if it is done more frequently an imbalance may be created in our water cycle. The fluid used in this process can hardly be recycled for later use because it is greatly contaminated with acidic chemicals. Although mining companies fail to disclose the chemicals they use for this process, research on their well sites has shown that the use of boric, citric, and acetic acids is evident.
These huge amounts of water means that transportation is necessary to move the fluid to the mining site as well as carry the waste from the wells away. In order to accomplish such a large goal, you need to have around 500 tankers to ferry the fluid and waste for a single well.
This translates to a total of 1000 tankers for two wells and mind you one tanker could be weighing about 100000lbs. This is a very massive amount of weight being transported on the roads. The result of this is damage to the roads resulting in wear and tear. This definitely calls for need to invest more to re-carpet and resurface the pathways.
About half of the fluid used in the fracking process returns to the surface. Here it is stored in steel tanks to avoid leakage and exposure to human beings or animals. It may then be used again for the same process in another well. However, chemical contamination has been noted around the storage tanks.
The process has been highly faulted for general contamination in many states. No one really knows what happens to the other half that remains underground after half of it is extracted to the ground. A great possibility though is that this fluid integrates into the normal water supply and this toxic substances result in harmful contamination.
The pressurized water together with the other substances in the liquid mixture is used to break rocks and create fractures in them. It is by this fractures that the oil and gas being mined flows out of the well freely. When the hydraulic pressure is withdrawn from the well, small proponents of the liquid mixture let say sand keeps the fractures open.
It consumes about 2 to 7 or 8 million water gallons to frack a one well in normal circumstances. However, contingent to the well type and size, more of this can be utilized. Some wells also need to be fracked out more than once and the result of this is that huge and massive quantities of liquid are drawn from our cycle for this purpose.
The utilization of large water amounts on this purpose means that if it is done more frequently an imbalance may be created in our water cycle. The fluid used in this process can hardly be recycled for later use because it is greatly contaminated with acidic chemicals. Although mining companies fail to disclose the chemicals they use for this process, research on their well sites has shown that the use of boric, citric, and acetic acids is evident.
These huge amounts of water means that transportation is necessary to move the fluid to the mining site as well as carry the waste from the wells away. In order to accomplish such a large goal, you need to have around 500 tankers to ferry the fluid and waste for a single well.
This translates to a total of 1000 tankers for two wells and mind you one tanker could be weighing about 100000lbs. This is a very massive amount of weight being transported on the roads. The result of this is damage to the roads resulting in wear and tear. This definitely calls for need to invest more to re-carpet and resurface the pathways.
About half of the fluid used in the fracking process returns to the surface. Here it is stored in steel tanks to avoid leakage and exposure to human beings or animals. It may then be used again for the same process in another well. However, chemical contamination has been noted around the storage tanks.
The process has been highly faulted for general contamination in many states. No one really knows what happens to the other half that remains underground after half of it is extracted to the ground. A great possibility though is that this fluid integrates into the normal water supply and this toxic substances result in harmful contamination.
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