"All Wells Are Fracked"????

Recently, at a wonderful gathering of some of my oldest and dearest friends, one of my old buddies was holding forth, darting rapidly from topic to topic.  He landed briefly on fracking, and declared himself amused by all the fuss, because, he said, "All wells are fracked.  Always have been."  From there, we bounced to a quick story about his father posing for a photograph standing by an oil well while lighting a cigar with a $100 bill.  (Cute?  Crass?  Depends on your point of view, I guess.)    

Not wishing to argue or debate on such a fine social occasion (and being unaware that the retired securities attorney was now a geologist), I just smiled and said nothing as the conversation flowed elsewhere.  But now . . .

"All wells are fracked."  Really?  Yeah, in the sense that any type of well drilling fractures some of the surrounding rock.  But beyond that superficial comparison, it's disingenuous to suggest there's no real difference between a residential water well, or a conventional oil well, and a fracked natural gas well.

A vertically-drilled well fractures some rock as a secondary consequence of the process.  A horizontally-drilled nat gas well intentionally fractures large fields of rock with pressurized water.

All well drilling uses some water for cooling, lubricating and flushing.  The nat gas hydro-fracking process uses much, much, much more water -- 6 to 8 million gallons per frack -- than conventional drilling.  And a single frack doesn't guarantee a producing gas well.

Hydro-fracking water isn't just water.  It's known as "slick water" or "brine" -- water doped up with salts, benzene, hydrochloric acid, and a whole host of toxic and carcinogenic additives (which the nat gas industry is loath to specify).  Such concoctions aren't needed for ordinary drilling.

Fracking wastewater temporary impoundment

After fracturing given (large) spots in the shale fields, these millions/billions of gallons of toxic soup can't be just dumped into the creek (although they certainly would be were it not for legal prohibitions).  All the nasty brine must be "contained", i.e. pumped into a fortified storage tank, where it will be kept  . . .  forever!  Required with regular drilling?  Nope.

But of course nothing can be contained forever, especially in some hole-in-the-ground designed by the petrochemical industry.  Some estimates say 35% of storage wells are leaking already.  We have literally no idea of long-term consequences, but we're proceeding willy-nilly anyway -- because there's money to be made!

Today's fracking isn't occurring in the wide-open spaces of Oklahoma.  It's happening in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia -- older, forested, populated, developed areas.  Nat gas fracking poses significantly more threat to the environment and to public health than any sort of conventional drilling ever has.  Fracking has already damaged land, wildlife and drinking water.  It has caused earthquakes.

And you say all wells have always been fracked?

Respectfully, no.  Not really.  Not by a long shot.  And even if they had, it wouldn't make it right.

Click the link for a few facts:
www.gaslandthemovie.com/whats-fracking

And if you're a real glutton for punishment, enter "fracking" in the Buster's Blog search window.