This case study is part of a collection of pages developed by students in the 2012 introductory-level Geology and Human Health course in the Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University. Learn more about this project.
Hydrofracking is a controversial oil and gas extraction technique developed in the late 1940s to gain access to fossil energy deposits previously inaccessible to drilling operations. The process, "hydraulic fracturing", literally involves the smashing of rock with millions of gallons of water--along with sand and a undisclosed assortment of chemicals in order to bring gas to the surface.
The 2005 Energy Policy Act exempted fracking from the Safe Drinking Water Act--this regulatory exclusion is often referred to as the Halliburton loophole.
Montana fracking is still in the early stages of development compared to other states and has been described by a Texas oil company as "the best kep secret in oil and gas".
Vertical well bores are drilled thousands of feet into the earth, through sediment layers, the water table, and shale rock formations in order to reach the oil and gas. The drilling is then angled horizontally, where a cement casing is installed and will serve as a conduit for the massive volume of water, fracking fluid, chemicals and sand needed to fracture the rock and shale. In some cases, prior to the injection of fluids, small explosives are used to open up the bedrock. The fractures allow the gas and oil to be removed from the formerly impervious rock formations.
Although fracking has technically been in existence for decades, the scale and type of drilling now taking place, deep fracking, is a new form of drilling and was first used in the Barnett shale of Texas in 1999.
Natural gas flares from a flare-head at the Orvis State well on the Evanson family farm in McKenzie County, North Dakota, east of Arnegard and west of Watford City.
A number of other air contaminants are released through the various drilling procedures, including construction and operation of the well site, transport of the materials and equipment, and disposal of the waste. Some of the pollutants released by drilling include: benzene, toluene, xylene and ethyl benzene (BTEX), particulate matter and dust, ground level ozone, or smog, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and metals contained in diesel fuel combustion---with exposure to these pollutants known to cause short-term illness, cancer, organ damage, nervous system disorders and birth defects or even death .
The Associated press recently reported that Wyoming's air quality near rural drilling sites is worse than Los Angeles'--with Wyoming ozone levels recorded at 124 parts per billion compared to the worst air day of the year for Los Angeles, at 114 parts per billion. The Environmental Protection Agency's maximum healthy limit is 75 parts per billion.
Oblique low-altitude aerial photo of wellpads, access roads, pipeline corridors and other natural-gas infrastructure in the Jonah Field of western Wyoming's upper Green River valley
A 2007 report prepared for the Western Governor's Association, that inventoried present and future nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions from oil and gas drilling in the west, projects Montana to experience a 310% increase in nitrogen oxide pollution (smog).
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and United States Geological Survey (USGS) have recently confirmed what residents of Pavillion, Wyoming had been claiming--that hydrofracking had contaminated their groundwater.
Another scenario for contamination to occur is by faulty design or construction of the cement well casings--something that happened in the BP Gulf blowout disaster. Storage of the waste water is currently under the regulatory jurisdiction of states, many of whom have weak to nonexistent policies protecting the environment.
According to journalists at Pro Publica, oil companies reported over 1,000 oil spills in North Dakota, 2011, with many more going unreported, state officials admit. The Associated Press also recently reported that the amount of chemically tainted soil from drilling waste increased nearly 5,100 percent over the past decade, to more than 512,000 tons last year. Steve Tillotson, assistant director of the North Dakota Health Department's waste management division, told reporters that trucks are hauling oilfield waste to facilities "24 hours a day, seven days a week."
Earthquakes constitute another problem associated with deep-well oil and gas drilling. Scientists refer to the earthquakes caused by the injection of fracking wastewater underground as "induced seismic events." Although most of the earthquakes are small in magnitude (the strongest measured 5.2), their relationship with the storage of millions of gallons of toxic wastewater does little to ease the fears over fossil energy's long list of externalities.
Despite the complexities of the on-site mixtures of chemicals and their specific contributions to health and environmental problems involved in fracking--conventional drilling practices are more old school and do have known health consequences. Researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado, analyzed existing research of exposure to conventional petroleum hydrocarbons in occupational settings, and residences near refineries, in conjunction with known pollutants associated with fracking (nonconventional), in order to assess health risks to those residents living near fracking operations. Their basic conclusions were: the closer you live to drilling operations, the greater your health risk. Sounds obvious, but if you were to sue an oil company for the suspected killing a loved one via cancer, you would need a little more legal ammunition than "it just makes common sense" against an army of corporate lawyers.
Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has yet to investigate the potential impacts of fracking, the director of CDC's National Center for Environmental Health and the agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Christopher J. Portier, PhD, has called for health studies to be published.
A 2012 paper was published in the journal, Environmental Health Perspectives, examining the composition of state and federal advisory committees tasked to consider the potential environmental and health effects of fracking in the Marcellus shale region. The researchers found that there was not one health expert among the 52 people comprising the various state and federal commissions and boards, even though public health was specified in the executive orders creating the committees.
While many state agencies function more as facilitators of fossil energy development than regulators, federal guardians of public health are also vulnerable to 'getting into bed' with big business, literally. One need only recall the former federal agency in charge of collecting oil and gas royalties on public lands, the Minerals Management Service. Employees from the Bush administration working for that regulatory agency were caught using cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relations with oil and gas company representatives.
Many people concerned by nonconventional oil and gas drilling would prefer the US adopt the so-called precautionary principle, which places the burden of proof on industries implementing new technologies and introducing new chemicals into our neighborhoods and environment. If your actions do not poison the water, accelerate climate change, cause cancer to those living near drilling and refineries, etc.—prove it. Current policy inverts such logic, instead forcing the victim (or their surviving relatives) to get into a legal fight with some of the richest and most politically powerful companies.
At a minimum, more stringent regulations should be passed at the national level, including repeal of oil and gas exemptions from the Safe Drinking Water Act. Violators of clean water and air laws should be prohibited from obtaining federal and state land drilling leases. Flaring of natural gas should be more strictly regulated. If a carbon tax were to be passed, energy companies would no longer get away with passing their so-called externalities (pollution) on to the community, tax payer, or environment.
Another approach would be the adoption of a legitimate national energy policy that is comprehensive in scope and science-based, as opposed to the current singular focus on short-term profits. Something more in line with what is occurring in Germany--where they have increased clean energy use from 6% in 2002, to 26% in 2012. A clean energy policy propelled by sophisticated technologies that require skilled workers could replace the third world fossil energy model en vogue these days. The spector of climate change makes the acclerated pursuit of carbon based fuel an irrational policy predicted to be far more expensive than the initial costs required to switch to clean energy technologies.
The researchers conducted interviews with animal owners in six states--Colorado, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas--affected by gas drilling. They also interviewed the owners' veterinarians, and examined the results of water, soil, and air testing as well as the results of laboratory tests on affected animals and their owners. The study highlights the possible links between gas drilling and negative health effects, along with the difficulties associated with conducting careful studies of such a link.
The authors examined the chemicals known to be used in natural gas fracking procedures. Researchers were able to compile a list of 632 chemicals, though this list is incomplete due to trade secret ememptions given to the energy companies by Congressional allies. Many of the chemicals are toxic and represent the 'bad boys' of health concerns--causing everthything from skin and eye irritation to cancer and mutuations. They also highlight the "side effect" of air pollution and the resulting irriversable damage to lung tissue, along with damage to vegetation in the surrounding area.
This article paper discusses how institutional forces from the energy industry, the media, and government obfuscate the impacts of fracking on communities and the environment. The narrative framing of natural gas as a 'green energy', or the fetishism of 'national energy independence' legitimizes and normalizes the harm to local water resources and local communities. Impacts to local health and ecology are pitted against the national agenda to retain dependence on fossil energy.
Horton, S. Disposal of hydrofracking waste fluid by injection into subsurface aquifers triggers earthquake swarm in central Arkansas with potential for damaging earthquake
This paper discusses waste fluid induced earthquakes related to fracking in Arkansas. The authors propose careful geologic study of those areas where wastewater injection occurs, since it is believed by geologists that the millions of gallons of fluids forced underground at high pressure can trigger earthquakes.
The greenhouse gas footprint is now known to have been significantly underestimated. This research assesses the role of methane being released by natural gas wells and its impact on climate change. Although natural gas was thought to be a cleaner form of energy than coal and oil, its relationship with methane actually makes it dirtier than the other two, in regards to their impact on climate change.
Researchers from the Colorado School of Public Health used EPA guidance to estimate chronic and subchronic non-cancer hazard indices and cancer risks from exposure to hydrocarbons for two populations: (1) residents living > ½ mile from wells and (2) residents living ≤ ½ mile from wells. Risks were higher for those living less than a 1/2 mile from wells than those living further from drilling sites.
Scientists found methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale-gas extraction. Average and maximum methane concentrations in drinking-water wells increased with proximity to the nearest gas well. Researchers also found a potential explosion hazard with the related concentrations of methane.
For a pro-fracking--Fracking is crucial to global economic stability; the economic benefits outweigh the environmental risks, says Terry Engeldervs. not-very-pro-fracking--Natural gas extracted from shale comes at too great a cost to the environment, say Robert W. Howarth and Anthony Ingraffea, visit the site posted by Nature.
To view and in-depth analysis of the concerns about fracking. This site is run by DeSmogBlog, whose work is covered by The New York Times, The UK Guardian,BBC , The Globe and Mail, Associated Press and CBC.
A website run by scientists concerned about the health and environmental impacts of low-dose exposures to chemicals.
Environment Texas, a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization, released a September 20, 2012 report documenting the cost of fracking not figured into our utility bills. One example from the report states that the truck traffic to just one well site causes as much damage to roads as 3.5 million cars.