We thought the authors might mean «biocides» rather than «pesticides», referring to preservatives used
in fracking fluids and to prevent growth in pipes.
The Duke study found no evidence of contamination from chemicals
in the fracking fluids that are injected into gas wells to help break up shale deposits, or from produced water.
«And by the industry not being willing to disclose what's
in those fracking fluids, they have created the environmental activism that they so dislike.»
But they also found that produced water contained potentially toxic chlorocarbons and organobromides, probably formed from interactions between high levels of bacteria in the water and salts or chemical treatments used
in fracking fluids.
There are several others that characterize the chemicals
in fracking fluids, air emissions and waste discharges.
Clinton told Anderson Cooper that she supports fracking only when local governments approve, when companies reveal what chemicals they are using
in the fracking fluids, and if they can prove they are not polluting the water or the land.
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says Tuesday that Cabot has agreed to publicly disclose its policy and procedures for eliminating or minimizing the use of toxic substances
in fracking fluids.
In the 121 - page draft report released today, EPA officials said that the contamination near the town of Pavillion, Wyo., had most likely seeped up from gas wells and contained at least 10 compounds known to be used
in frack fluids.
Scientists don't know all of the hormone - like chemicals
in fracking fluid yet, Linden notes.
Until there is clarity here, no matter how sound the report's conclusions (and many are, including its criticisms of industry resistance to revealing ingredients
in fracking fluid), the school and Groat have left themselves open to legitimate criticism, including those leveled in a blog post calling this practice «Frackademia.»
The sand
in fracking fluid keeps the fractures open after the pressure is released, and the chemicals are chiefly agents to reduce friction and prevent corrosion.
«Drilling companies have won exemption from just about every piece of federal environmental law except the requirement to get permits if they use diesel
in their fracking fluid,» said Dusty Horwitt of the Environmental Working Group.
In March of 2013, the Commissioners approved a chemical disclosure bill in committee which would have required fracking companies to disclose to the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) the chemical ingredients
in fracking fluid, many of which are extremely toxic.
The compromise on the chemical concentrations was that the chemicals and concentrations would be listed separately from the descriptions of the products
in the frack fluid.
Not exact matches
Further, the Duke study did not detect
fracking fluids in any of the wells tested.
But perusing newspapers from towns where
fracking is going on reveals how the issue refuses to die, with headlines like «Fears of Tainted Water Well Up in Colorado,» «Collateral Damage: Residents Fear Murky Effects of Energy Boom,» and «Worker Believes Cancer Caused by Fracking Fluids» appearing re
fracking is going on reveals how the issue refuses to die, with headlines like «Fears of Tainted Water Well Up
in Colorado,» «Collateral Damage: Residents Fear Murky Effects of Energy Boom,» and «Worker Believes Cancer Caused by
Fracking Fluids» appearing re
Fracking Fluids» appearing regularly.
They were especially alarmed after heavy rains created serious flooding
in the Southern Tier, adding to the worries that runoff from
fracking fluid would make the process even more dangerous.
Though the
fluids were natural and not the byproduct of drilling or hydraulic fracturing, the finding further stokes the red - hot controversy over
fracking in the Marcellus Shale, suggesting that drilling waste and chemicals could migrate
in ways previously thought to be impossible.
Moreover, scientists suspect that the injection of used
fracking fluid into deep disposal wells may have triggered dozens of recent small earthquakes
in northeastern Ohio and north Texas.
That surge has coincided
in time and place with the boom
in unconventional oil and gas extraction such as hydraulic fracturing, or «
fracking,»
in which high - pressure
fluid is injected into the ground to break up the underlying rock and release trapped gas or oil.
«By measuring naturally occurring ammonium and iodide
in numerous samples from different geological formations
in the Appalachian Basin, including flowback waters from shale gas wells
in the Marcellus and Fayetteville shale formations, we show that
fracking fluids are not much different from conventional oil and gas wastes,» said Jennifer S. Harkness, lead author of the study and a PhD student at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.
In 2011, in response to growing public concern about the possible environmental and human health effects of fracking wastewater, Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection requested that the discharge of fracking fluids and other unconventional oil and gas wastewater into surface waters be prohibited from central water - treatment facilities that release high salinity effluent
In 2011,
in response to growing public concern about the possible environmental and human health effects of fracking wastewater, Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection requested that the discharge of fracking fluids and other unconventional oil and gas wastewater into surface waters be prohibited from central water - treatment facilities that release high salinity effluent
in response to growing public concern about the possible environmental and human health effects of
fracking wastewater, Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection requested that the discharge of
fracking fluids and other unconventional oil and gas wastewater into surface waters be prohibited from central water - treatment facilities that release high salinity effluents.
Previous studies have shown that
fracking fluids contain high levels of salts, barium and radioactive elements,
in addition to human - made chemicals added
in the process of hydraulic fracturing.
But Clarens says
fracking fluids could theoretically leak into aquifers, because the wells must be dug through shallow layers where the aquifers lie
in order to reach shales.
Both
fracking and wastewater injections can increase the
fluid pressure
in the natural pores and fractures
in rock, or change the state of stress on existing faults, to produce earthquakes.
EPA officials have repeatedly said that disclosure of the
fluids used
in fracking — something that would be required if the bill being debated
in Congress were passed — would enable them to investigate contamination incidents faster, more conclusively and for less money.
In 2001, her water well exploded with methane and gray sediment the same day drillers pumped
fluids underground to
frack a well nearby.
California officials have ordered an emergency shut - down of 11 oil and gas waste injection sites and a review more than 100 others
in the state's drought - wracked Central Valley out of fear that companies may have been pumping
fracking fluids and other toxic waste into drinking water aquifers there.
Some of the findings
in the report also directly contradict longstanding arguments by the drilling industry for why the
fracking process is safe: that hydrologic pressure would naturally force
fluids down, not up; that deep geologic layers provide a watertight barrier preventing the movement of chemicals towards the surface; and that the problems with the cement and steel barriers around gas wells aren't connected to
fracking.
Fluid injection can occur with conventional oil and gas extraction methods, which extract fuel from underground pools, and with unconventional methods like
fracking, which recover oil and gas from small voids
in rocks.
Then,
in 2011, a congressional investigation found that
in fact between 2005 and 2009, 12 companies had injected 32 million gallons of diesel fuel or
fracking fluids containing diesel fuel
in wells
in 19 states.
Investigations by The New York Times last winter revealed that sewage - treatment plants processing
fracking wastewater are discharging radioactive
fluid into public waterways,
in some cases upstream of intake sites for drinking water.
A range of hydrocarbons showed up
in the deep wells, as did some synthetic organic chemicals associated with
fracking fluids and drilling activities.
But according to a panel of geologists at the AAAS Annual Meeting, the culprit isn't hydraulic fracturing, or «
fracking,»
in which geologists crack open subsurface rocks to extract oil and gas; instead, it's the processes associated with pumping wastewater and other
fluids back into the ground.
A bill now under consideration on Capitol Hill would grant the EPA oversight of
fracking and force drilling companies, which are currently exempt from portions of the Clean Water Act, to disclose the chemicals they use
in fracturing
fluids.
The risk of human - made earthquakes due to
fracking is greatly reduced if high - pressure
fluid injection used to crack underground rocks is 895m away from faults
in the Earth's crust, according to new research.
In the future, they say, drillers should take account of such risks, especially when they fail to recover
fracking fluids.
Fracking — or hydraulic fracturing — is a process
in which rocks are deliberately fractured to release oil or gas by injecting highly pressurised
fluid into a borehole.
Research lead author Miles Wilson, a PhD student
in Durham University's Department of Earth Sciences, said: «Induced earthquakes can sometimes occur if
fracking fluids reach geological faults.
They looked both at wells used for enhanced oil recovery —
in which
fluid is injected to flush lingering oil from a depleted reservoir — and at those used to dispose of wastewater from conventional oil and gas extraction or from hydraulic fracturing (
fracking).
Their discovery could aid secure
fracking —
in which rocks below ground are split with high - pressure
fluids — or extraction of methane gas from deep coal beds.
The report explains that along with natural gas, production wells
in the Azle area of the NEGF can also bring to the surface significant volumes of water from the highly permeable Ellenburger Formation — both naturally occurring brine as well as
fluids that were introduced during the
fracking process.
When hydraulic fracturing or «
fracking» to access unconventional oil and gas reserves was a hot topic
in the fossil fuel industry, Ryerson was tapped to lead a team to develop GEOS — a dynamic computational rock mechanics and hydrologic tool — that can model facture propagation, resulting seismic signals and pressure - driven
fluid flow through a rock mass.
And that is an underestimate of the amount of brine,
fracking fluid and other contaminated water that flows back up a well along with the natural gas or oil, because it is based on incomplete data from state governments gathered
in 2007.
Varun Gupta, a scientist with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Computational Engineering group, was recently quoted
in an article describing an environmentally benign
fracking fluid developed for capturing geothermal energy, known as StimuFrac ™.
My concern is that many will read the title, «Geochemical evidence for possible natural migration of Marcellus Formation brine to shallow aquifers
in Pennsylvania,» and immediately infer that residual treatment water (i.e.,
frack fluid) is most likely to leak into groundwater from depths of several thousand feet.
It's from instances where waste
fluids — for example, the water used
in fracking — are injected deep into the earth.
California officials have ordered an emergency shut - down of 11 oil waste injection sites and a review of over 100 others
in the Central Valley for fear that companies may have been pumping
fracking fluids into drinking water aquifers.
US natural gas editors discuss carbon emission caps, falling NYMEX July gas prices, contract expirations looming for gas pipelines, and
fracking fluids in Wyoming.
Then a mixture, commonly known as
fracking fluid, of water (90 percent), sand (9.5 percent) and chemicals (0.5 percent) is pumped into the well under high pressure to create micro-fractures
in the shale and free the natural gas or oil.