Frickin Fracking

Fracking is a word I have heard of before but never really knew what it was. This Fracking topic is a controversial one at best. My thoughts on this are mixed as well as vague. I need to learn a lot about this subject as well as many of us probably do. Fracking is something that is just as good for us as well as it is bad. Does the good out way the bad or vice versa? As you will see in this commercial that we watched in class, you will find out that our technology enabled us to extract this gas from over a mile down in the earth. ExxonMobil states that these natural gas deposits could supply us fuel for the next 100 years. Sounds good right? Well let’s take a look at this bit of information I found on www.fractracker.org. “Granted, drilling a well is not quite the same impact as a surface mining operation, but to protect an area from one mode of mineral extraction and not the other seems inconsistent. After all, many of the problems with coal are still relevant for gas drilling, since the drilling operator must go through the coal seam to get to the gas. The pyrite associated with the coal is still exposed to air, meaning that the drilling mud and drill cuttings probably contain sulfuric acid, the key component of acid mine drainage (AMD). And it’s not just the drill cuttings that could be a source of problems…it could be the well bore itself. Consider the Hughes Bore Hole, which, according to Wikipedia was drilled in the 1920′s to drain underground mines in the area, then capped in the 1950′s. So what’s the big deal? In the 1970′s, pressure built up and the hole burst open, and has been spewing about 800 gallons per minute of acid mine drainage ever since” (There is a picture I tried to put in this blog, that is very gross and worrysome, but I was not able to put the video along with the picture for some reason). I still need more information on this topic to determine if the good out way the bad, but I do know that the frackers make it sound good, but is it really. That choice is up to you.