Anyone
who has been paying attention to ecological news in the last decade has heard
the term “Fracking.” They’ve heard it praised and they’ve heard it demonized by
the media, politicians, CEO’s, and environmentalists. But what is Fracking? The
short answer is Hydraulic Fracturing but the long answer is much, much more
than that.
No
matter what side of the coin you fall on, whether you support it or are
strongly against it, there is one factor that neither side can deny; it is a
lucrative and profitable industry, and the methods don’t look as though they
will disappear anytime soon.
The
reason for Hydraulic Fracturing is simple. Natural gas. But how do we extract
this natural gas by drilling into the Earth and causing it to crack?
Furthermore, how did this gas get there in the first place, and what is it even
made of? But perhaps the most burning question of all that’s on the tip of
everyone’s tongue is plain and simple.
Is
Fracking safe?
Yes
and no. It has its upsides but there are clearly pitfalls to it. Here at To
Infinity And…In Theory I have no political agenda so I’m not going to cast my
vote for or against it. What I am
going to do is talk about all of the sciences that coalesce into this
controversial and complicated technique of extracting fossil fuels from miles
deep within the crust of the Earth.
All Shale To The King,
Baby
That
picture above isn’t just any old gray rock. It’s a rock called Shale. In a
sense this is the very substance the gas companies are after, or rather, the
contents contained therein. See Shale is a fairly weak rock and at a molecular
level there are lots of little pockets that form inside it. It’s the pockets
that everyone’s after.
When
organic material dies it decomposes and rejoins the Earth. The Shale forms
around this organic material and sinks deeper into the planet. As pressures and
temperatures rise the remainder of organic matter is essentially burned off and
reduced to a gaseous form. This “Shale gas” is the final prize.
But
in order to get this natural gas you can’t just extract it from Shale on the
surface. It hasn’t had the time or the right conditions to break down the
organic material trapped inside it. If you started fracking surface Shale all
you would be succeeding in doing is looking like an idiot and wasting a lot of
water. So for the purposes of the gas companies we need to drill.
The
drilling process spans about 2 miles in total but it’s not all straight down.
In fact after about a mile deep the drill makes a slight turn until the drill
path resembles a one mile deep, one mile long “L” shape. It’s not because the
drill has difficultly digging down any deeper, it’s because it only works if
you do it this way.
As
I said before, Shale isn’t very strong. Because of this there are already tiny
micro-fractures that run across Shale deposits. Once the core is drilled out in
the L shape exposing these fractures, hundreds of thousands (sometimes
MILLIONS!) of gallons of water, sand, and various chemicals are thrust into the
hole at extremely high pressures. Once it’s full, with nowhere else to go, it
begins to seep and worm it’s way into the small cracks along the drill path.
Once the Shale breaks the gas is released and pumped into tankers on the
surface.
Is It Supposed To
Burn Like That?
Hydraulic
Fracking is comprised of several parts. First the Shale deposit must be
discovered, second the land must be legally obtained for drilling rights, third
millions upon millions of dollars must go into specialized equipment in order
to ensure environmental and worker safety. After those three conditions are
met, the science begins.
As
I mentioned above the way the gas is extracted is by splitting the rock using a
mix of water, sand, and chemicals. But the word “chemicals” can be a rather
scary one to some individuals, especially when it comes to those in areas
affected by Fracking.
I
know what some of your saying, “shouldn’t sand and high water pressure be
enough?” Yes, technically that would
accomplish it to a degree, but it wouldn’t be nearly as lucrative as it is now.
You need certain chemicals like Hydrochloric acid in order to stimulate the
micro-fractures. This is what opens them up into larger cracks that can be
broken apart by the pressure.
But
using that Hydrochloric acid has a serious drawback. Turns out, acid is
corrosive… (Gee, I’m so surprised…) and a corrosion inhibitor must be used to
protect the drilling gear and other equipment essential to extraction and
safety. For this chemicals like Formic acid and Acetaldehyde are used.
You
need biocides to treat the water to prevent damaging byproducts from forming
during the drilling process. For that various ammonium chlorides are used.
There are a lot of chemicals that go into Fracking, from friction reducers to
stabilizers; citric acid is even used to prevent precipitation of metal oxides.
If
you want to see a complete list of chemicals used in the process you can by
clicking here. Most of them are fairly harmless, some can be deadly in
massive quantities, but the vast majority of gas companies in the U.S. stand
behind the Environmental codes and regulations laid out for them, however I
cannot speak for all.
From Sea To Shining
Sea
Depending
on where you live you may or may not see Fracking equipment moving into your
neighborhood anytime soon. But it might not be so bad if you did. See here in
America, if you own the land above the resource, you own the rights. And if you
own the rights, you got them by the…well, you get the picture.
See
the company has to first purchase the drilling rights to your land from you.
After that happens, if the well begins producing, you begin seeing royalty
checks. In a BBC documentary titled Fracking: The New Energy Rush a rural farmer from Louisiana becomes
an overnight millionaire, receiving monthly checks close to half a million
dollars in royalties once the wells began producing.
The
map above should give you a pretty good idea based on where you live in the United
States whether or not you have a chance at becoming a Shale-ionaire (Sorry,
watch the documentary, couldn’t help myself.). It’s important to know that even
if you’re in an area rich in Shale, it doesn’t mean they can just start
drilling.
You
need a lot of open area for the piping, storage, and drilling equipment. If you
live in a big city, it doesn’t matter if you own that whole acre parcel of
land, gas companies aren’t interested. Sorry to shatter your Beverly Hillbilly
fantasies, but I figure it’s better to do it now then to wait for you to run
out and rent a backhoe.
Perhaps
someday there will be another method of extracting the gas that will allow us
city slickers to get in the game, but it doesn’t look like that will be any
time soon. Experts estimate that there is more Shale gas in the United States
than there is oil in all of Saudi Arabia. Perhaps that’s why operations and
explorations are underway in 30 states already, with more supporters jumping
aboard every day
But
for every supporter there is opposition. And like most scientific advances,
there are great benefits to mankind, but there can potentially be catastrophic
side effects. Next, let’s talk about some things that can go horribly wrong,
what variables can cause these events to occur, and what steps can be taken to
prevent these problems from happening again in the future.
Subterranean Politics
As
much as I despise politics in any form and have no wish to discuss them in a
sacred place of Science, it’s impossible to talk about Fracking without getting
into them to a certain extent. The two have practically become synonymous with
one another. On one side you have the environmentalists screaming at the
politicians to put a stop to this Mother Nature manslaughter. On the other side
of the fence are the politicians brimming with cold sweat over energy
dependence. No matter how you look at it there’s no clear winner in any of
this.
It’s
hard to deny that we’re dependent on foreign oil. You also can’t deny that we
are a very, very resource hungry country. We’re a developed nation after all
with a lot of people, so it’s no wonder our consumption is so high. Fracking
could lead to cheaper methods of powering foundries and chemical plants,
effectively bringing jobs back that were once phased out to overseas labor. The
cost of foreign labor would actually be more expensive than the mined Shale gas
to run them here.
Energy
independence may be a tantalizing notion, but poking a stick a mile down into
our planet and pressurizing it till it explodes may not be so much. The long
term effects of Fracking are relatively unknown as this technique of mining
really into came into full swing around 2007. One thing is certain though, the
Earth’s crust never intended to be drilled into and hyper-pressurized without
fighting back at some point. Fracking destabilizes the geological structure in
a region; if you do it too much you can sink that area, and trust me, if you’ve
ever seen a sinkhole its way less fun than it sounds.
There’s
also the problem of underground water supplies. In Pennsylvania it’s been noted
by chemical engineer, Robert Jackson, that 115 out 141 shallow well water sites
were contaminated with high levels of methane. Not just methane created by
microorganisms around and in the well. The levels were far too high. They came
from within the Marcellus Shale due to the destabilization of Fracking in the
region.
Pipes
can break (looking at you BP), casings can rupture, and chemicals and gas can
leak out. Most of the chemicals are contained well below the drinking water
line so the risk of contamination from them is extremely minimal. However, if a
pipe breaks while pumping gas to the surface; it can leak out, contaminating
water sources.
New
safety measures need to be taken into account in order to ensure this doesn’t
happen again in the future. But there’s one thing that reading all this
should’ve brought to your attention that’s positive. If there’s all this new
work coming into town…
Then
by default it has to create jobs.
While
some jobs on Fracking sites require specific training and skillsets in order to
perform your daily duties, others are as simple as trucking water, sand, and
other materials in and out, basic heavy machinery operation, and a general
understanding of industrial construction. That may sound imposing, but believe
me, there are many out of work contractors out there who have more than a
general understanding about an extensive lot of different specialties.
But
there are some towns that aren’t happy with this. The sudden economic boom has
raised the standard of living in some areas and not everyone has been able to
find work with these companies. It’s actually brought an entirely new plethora of
social issues along with it raising the public’s questionable and doubtful eyebrows
about fracking, and the last question on our list…
Is
Fracking worth the risk?
So What The Frack Are
You Saying Exactly?
In
conclusion I will simply restate what I said at the beginning of this article. I am
in no way trying to push any political agenda with this piece so please don’t
mistake some of my sarcasm for anything but that (I have been told I’m
rather cynical at times.) I will say two things however to close this out and
you may take them or leave them.
I
agree with the politicians to the extent that we are far too dependent on
foreign sources for our energy resources. The biggest doorway we have to reopen
is making it cost effective for big companies to have the incentive to move
back to our shores and open old factories again. This will be the key in
bringing jobs back to America.
I
also agree with the environmentalists in that current methods of Fracking
aren’t foolproof and some companies choose to take immoral (and often
dangerous) roads in order to turn a larger profit. More research needs to go
into improving methods and equipment in order to safely extract the gas without
disturbing the geological composition of the area to a catastrophic degree.
This
hot button issue will continue to cause media fire storms and public outrage in
the future, but I hope this article gave you a better understanding of what
Fracking really is.
-
Ryan
Sanders
Thanks for reading, and as always if
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Knowledge is more fun when it’s socialized! Happy learning everyone and for
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