My Views On Fracking

     Fracking does indeed cause environmental damage. Local water tables are contaminated. Up to 600 chemicals are used in fracking fluid, including known carcinogens and toxins. The chemicals in the water forced into the earth are dangerous to human and animal health. Why else would NC go so far as to forbid the public from knowing what is in the fracking water they are using?
     Hydraulic fracturing is the process of drilling and injecting fluid, containing water, chemicals, and sand, into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside to get to a larger area and get more natural gas the wells are often drilled horizontal. Each fracking site requires around four hundred tanker trucks of water to be shipped to the drilling site. Around 1 to 8 million gallons of water are used for each well.
      50% or less of the fracking fluid is recovered and is left in open pits to evaporate, this puts volatile organic compounds into the air creating contaminated air, acid rain, and ground level ozone.
    Here are a few facts that are usually undisputed on both sides. The level of methane in water wells near fracking sires are 17% higher than average water wells. contaminated water doesn't always get into the drinking water. This depends on several factors; the depth of the water well, the geographical features of the rock beds between the fracking site and the area surrounding the sites, and the adherence to proper procedures by the industry doing the fracking.
     Exposure to these chemicals does cause serious health problems. There have been many cases of the water table in a specific areas being permanently contaminated so that the property owners can’t continue to live on the property and can’t sell the property, though not as many as have been claimed in some documentaries. The fact that it does happen needs to be addressed by the industry and as much as possible made right with the people effected.
     Fracking as well as drilling for oil is not the best long term solution for energy needs. Obtaining fossil fuels is damaging to the environment. There will have to be a shift into renewable energy, though I do understand that it can’t happen overnight, It will happen.
     In the meantime a few things need to happen. The Frack Act, (fracturing responsibility and awareness of chemicals act), which would require industry to disclose all chemicals used in fracking. This should not be a problem if, as the industry claims, it is not harmful. 
    The second is to repeal the exemption from the safe drinking water act. This should have never have been allowed in the first place and has bred the mistrust of the industry.
     Neither side is telling the whole truth. An informed opinion can only be reached with research and facts from sources that have nothing to gain from either side.