Thread: Study exposes fracking’s poisonous effects

Fracking - a natural gas extraction process - has always been a source of controversy for environmental activists. Now, concerns about the safety of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale have skyrocketed, in light of a recent scientific study, which concluded that chemicals used in fracking can seep into and poison drinking water far more quickly and easily than previously thought.

In the new study, published three weeks ago in the monthly environmental research journal Ground Water, scientists suggested that, although certain layers of rock would keep the fluid, which contains benzene and other hazardous chemicals, those chemicals would reach the surface within merely a few years, and then taint any nearby water.
Scientists arrived at such a conclusion based on computer modeling, which analyzed the natural faults and fractures in the Marcellus Shale.

The study's computer modeling also predicted how fracking fluids would move over time, and concluded that fracking will drastically speed up the movement of underground chemicals from previous drilling, drawing them to the surface at a much more rapid rate than initially thought.

Read more @: Study exposes fracking?s poisonous effects » peoplesworld

My opinion this way of extracting national gas needs more regulations. Its not a safe way to extract natural gas and we should invest in more green and safe alternatives.

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Indeed.

"Since 2005, the EPA has had no authority to prosecute the possible pollution of hydraulic fracturing operations under the Safe Drinking Water Act; these companies currently enjoy the Haiburton Loophole—named after the first company licensed to practice fracking—which frees the practice from regulation. Hydraulic fracturing received an all-clear from the EPA in a 2004 study which denied any connection between drinking water contamination and fracking. Yet other, non-EPA funded studies, have found that fracking increases levels of methane, radioactivity and toxic fracturing fluids in the groundwater near well sites which can lead to, among other things, flammable tap water. It was not until 2010 that the EPA reopened an investigation into cases of contaminated groundwater and wells around areas where hydraulic fracturing occurs. Fracking is known to release a group of chemicals called BTEX, which have harmful effects on the nervous system and have been shown to cause birth defects and cancer."

Fracking: Economic Boom or Environmental Danger? | Politics & Policy

Originally Posted by TheDemSocialist

Read more @: Study exposes fracking?s poisonous effects » peoplesworld

My opinion this way of extracting national gas needs more regulations. Its not a safe way to extract natural gas and we should invest in more green and safe alternatives.

Thoughts?
Comments?
Response?
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Sorry but I refuse to read anything from a publication called "peoples world". If it starts out with people or workers it is communist propoganda, count on it. Now some smart ass will say, what about people magazine, LOL.

As a Battlestar Galactica fan I am unable to take this topic seriously.