5 ms·

Irritating that fracking gets all the headlines. You wouldn't even notice it if it were happening under your feet right now. Drilling is what you will notice.

binarymax 3y ago
You’d notice fracking when the waste gets into the water table.
- fallingknife 3y ago
  Please cite one example of an area where the drinking water has been rendered undrinkable by fracking.
  - barbazoo 3y ago
    See the links I responded with and the hundreds of other sources available on the internet.
    - downvotetruth 3y ago
      Although well intentioned, they do not address the request, which given enough time and money any source can be rendered drinkable, but please do not water the trolls.
      - vkou 3y ago
        > which given enough time and money any source can be rendered drinkable, Fewer people would have issues with resource extractors if they bonded over sufficient funds for a full remediation of all the damage they could do in the course of their operations. They never do, because the liabilities there are almost unbounded, and doesn't gel with the fly-by-night can't-squeeze-blood-from-a-deadbeat nature of most drillers.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - DueDilligence 3y ago
    [dead]
  - pvaldes 3y ago
    > Please cite one example of an area where the drinking water has been rendered undrinkable by fracking. https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1100682108 https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1100682108 [Pennsylvania and New York] "we document systematic evidence for methane contamination of drinking water" The average concentration of the methane detected in the water wells near drilling sites fell within a range that the U.S. Department of Interior says is dangerous and requires urgent “hazard mitigation” action.
- porkbeer 3y ago
  Which while not unheard of, is rare. Most water wells use fracking these days. It is a method of creating a local porus section of earth. I wish they would just say natural gas well, the fracking itself, when done correctly, is not generally the biggest envirnmental concern. Usually it is the wellcap and infrastructure that is. P.s. pretty please stop fighting pipelines if you care about the environment. Trucking and shipping of oil are vastly dirtier, with more spills and in absolute best cases, the pollution from rail shipment.
  - outside1234 3y ago
    We need to stop the oil too, not only the pipelines.
barbazoo 3y ago
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-can-contaminate-drinking-water/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-can-cont... https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/study-links-fracking-drinking-water-pollution-and-infant-heath https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/study-links-fracki... https://www.consumerreports.org/water-contamination/how-fracking-has-contaminated-drinking-water-a1256135490/ https://www.consumerreports.org/water-contamination/how-frac... https://www.propublica.org/series/fracking https://www.propublica.org/series/fracking
- fallingknife 3y ago
  From your first link: > After numerous rounds of testing by both the state of Wyoming and EPA, there is no evidence that the water quality in domestic wells in the Pavillion Field has changed as a result of oil and gas operations; no oil and gas constituents were found to exceed drinking water standards in any samples taken There's not a single chemical used industrially that can't be found in some amount in the water supply. Wake me up when something exceeds safe levels.
  - idontpost 3y ago
    [dead]
  - mikeyouse 3y ago
    The quote you pulled from the article is literally the oil company's PR rep - and the claim is addressed later with full context how the labs weren't equipped to handle fracking testing since they were setup for different purposes. From later: > Since 2012, a trove of new data had accumulated from USGS, EPA and state regulators. He obtained EPA’s methanol testing results through a Freedom of Information Act request and downloaded the rest of the information from the Wyoming oil and gas regulator’s website. All of it was publicly available, waiting for the right person to spend a year crunching the information. > The end result: a peer-reviewed study that reaffirms EPA’s findings that there was something suspicious going on in Pavillion. More research is needed. > The sampling wells contained methanol. They also contained high levels of diesel compounds, suggesting they may have been contaminated by open pits where operators had stored chemicals, DiGiulio said. I've seen fracking proponents earnestly arguing that the pollution in local water supplies wasn't from the fracking, but from the other associated activities e.g. wastewater disposal and some of these open-pit storage options. Kind of important that those associated activities literally only exist due to the fracking! It's definitely true that in well-run sites with well-regulated wastewater and inspection regimes, fracking can happen with very little impact on groundwater or surface water -- it's also definitely true that there's a very strong profit motive for operators to cut corners and that in many places, they're in bed with the regulators which leads to a lot of otherwise avoidable pollution. It's alluring to claim that fracking is safe because it can be performed safely -- but the reality on the ground is much more mixed.
hightrix 3y ago
Do you or have you ever lived near a fracking installation? I have and I can garauntee that it is completely noticable.
vineyardmike 3y ago
There’s more types of pollution than just water. I used to work at a company that was hired to do air monitoring on fracking sites. I wouldn’t want to live near one. I also think it’s outrageous that the government allows any sort of mineral extraction on conservation sites, regardless of pollution. That’s not the intent of conservation land.
- landemva 3y ago
  I think it is outrageous the government owns any land, outside of military bases and the Legislature and Governor buildings. Ownership of resources by government encourages these wasteful political battles. A poor government has little to steal from, so people instead will focus on productive private activities.
standeven 3y ago
I mean, it's true - the most disruptive and destructive part of fracking is the work on the surface, like the clearing for drill pads and access roads and water works. That said, you can't frack without these.

binarymax 3y ago

You’d notice fracking when the waste gets into the water table.

fallingknife 3y ago
Please cite one example of an area where the drinking water has been rendered undrinkable by fracking.
- barbazoo 3y ago
  See the links I responded with and the hundreds of other sources available on the internet.
  - downvotetruth 3y ago
    Although well intentioned, they do not address the request, which given enough time and money any source can be rendered drinkable, but please do not water the trolls.
    - vkou 3y ago
      > which given enough time and money any source can be rendered drinkable, Fewer people would have issues with resource extractors if they bonded over sufficient funds for a full remediation of all the damage they could do in the course of their operations. They never do, because the liabilities there are almost unbounded, and doesn't gel with the fly-by-night can't-squeeze-blood-from-a-deadbeat nature of most drillers.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- DueDilligence 3y ago
  [dead]
- pvaldes 3y ago
  > Please cite one example of an area where the drinking water has been rendered undrinkable by fracking. https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1100682108 https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1100682108 [Pennsylvania and New York] "we document systematic evidence for methane contamination of drinking water" The average concentration of the methane detected in the water wells near drilling sites fell within a range that the U.S. Department of Interior says is dangerous and requires urgent “hazard mitigation” action.
porkbeer 3y ago
Which while not unheard of, is rare. Most water wells use fracking these days. It is a method of creating a local porus section of earth. I wish they would just say natural gas well, the fracking itself, when done correctly, is not generally the biggest envirnmental concern. Usually it is the wellcap and infrastructure that is. P.s. pretty please stop fighting pipelines if you care about the environment. Trucking and shipping of oil are vastly dirtier, with more spills and in absolute best cases, the pollution from rail shipment.
- outside1234 3y ago
  We need to stop the oil too, not only the pipelines.

barbazoo 3y ago

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-can-contaminate-drinking-water/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-can-cont... https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/study-links-fracking-drinking-water-pollution-and-infant-heath https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/study-links-fracki... https://www.consumerreports.org/water-contamination/how-fracking-has-contaminated-drinking-water-a1256135490/ https://www.consumerreports.org/water-contamination/how-frac... https://www.propublica.org/series/fracking https://www.propublica.org/series/fracking

fallingknife 3y ago
From your first link: > After numerous rounds of testing by both the state of Wyoming and EPA, there is no evidence that the water quality in domestic wells in the Pavillion Field has changed as a result of oil and gas operations; no oil and gas constituents were found to exceed drinking water standards in any samples taken There's not a single chemical used industrially that can't be found in some amount in the water supply. Wake me up when something exceeds safe levels.
- idontpost 3y ago
  [dead]
- mikeyouse 3y ago
  The quote you pulled from the article is literally the oil company's PR rep - and the claim is addressed later with full context how the labs weren't equipped to handle fracking testing since they were setup for different purposes. From later: > Since 2012, a trove of new data had accumulated from USGS, EPA and state regulators. He obtained EPA’s methanol testing results through a Freedom of Information Act request and downloaded the rest of the information from the Wyoming oil and gas regulator’s website. All of it was publicly available, waiting for the right person to spend a year crunching the information. > The end result: a peer-reviewed study that reaffirms EPA’s findings that there was something suspicious going on in Pavillion. More research is needed. > The sampling wells contained methanol. They also contained high levels of diesel compounds, suggesting they may have been contaminated by open pits where operators had stored chemicals, DiGiulio said. I've seen fracking proponents earnestly arguing that the pollution in local water supplies wasn't from the fracking, but from the other associated activities e.g. wastewater disposal and some of these open-pit storage options. Kind of important that those associated activities literally only exist due to the fracking! It's definitely true that in well-run sites with well-regulated wastewater and inspection regimes, fracking can happen with very little impact on groundwater or surface water -- it's also definitely true that there's a very strong profit motive for operators to cut corners and that in many places, they're in bed with the regulators which leads to a lot of otherwise avoidable pollution. It's alluring to claim that fracking is safe because it can be performed safely -- but the reality on the ground is much more mixed.

hightrix 3y ago

Do you or have you ever lived near a fracking installation? I have and I can garauntee that it is completely noticable.

vineyardmike 3y ago

There’s more types of pollution than just water. I used to work at a company that was hired to do air monitoring on fracking sites. I wouldn’t want to live near one. I also think it’s outrageous that the government allows any sort of mineral extraction on conservation sites, regardless of pollution. That’s not the intent of conservation land.

landemva 3y ago
I think it is outrageous the government owns any land, outside of military bases and the Legislature and Governor buildings. Ownership of resources by government encourages these wasteful political battles. A poor government has little to steal from, so people instead will focus on productive private activities.

standeven 3y ago

I mean, it's true - the most disruptive and destructive part of fracking is the work on the surface, like the clearing for drill pads and access roads and water works. That said, you can't frack without these.