Tristan Byram
Mrs. Wilde
PreAP English II
4 January 2015
Fracking: Why It Should Be Banned
Dear Gina McCarthy,
How is a process that has been highly speculated to be the cause of earthquakes in various southern states still being allowed? Is it right that states such as Texas, who are in stage two and three droughts allow the use of millions of gallons of water for such a unproven and ambiguous process? Why are people such as Mark G Papa, head of the drilling company EOG
Resources, willing to risk the lives of fellow Americans? Money is not of equivalence to the lives and well being of a humans. This poisonous process known as Fracking should not be allowed anywhere, as it is solely a cause of deterioration and destruction of areas around the nation. Hydraulic Fracturing, also known as Fracking, is a process in which millions of gallons of water are injected into the ground, breaking a valuable rock called shale, which contains abundant amounts of natural gas (Gillespie, Nick). When this rock is broken, it doesn’t just release the natural gas inside of the rock, but it also ruptures the ground beneath the rock, which is the main cause of the earthquakes that have been occurring in places such as Oklahoma.
Between the years 1978 and 2008, Oklahoma averaged only one earthquake over a 3.0 magnitude, but in 2014, 207 earthquakes above a 3.0 magnitude occurred. This is 47 more earthquakes than the state that has been widely known for earthquakes, California (Schlanger,
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Zoe). The only thing is that there is a scientific reason for the many earthquakes that happen in
California. This is because in California there is a fault known as the San Andreas Fault, however in Oklahoma there is no fault. The only reason earthquakes in those numbers are happening in a faultless state with no geological history of high seismic activity such as
Oklahoma is the fracking that is occurring. In areas such as this, homes, businesses, schools, and many other structures were not built to sustain earthquakes like buildings in California were built to. This is because earthquakes do not occur historically in areas such as these. Because of this, families, small business owners, and many others are being devastated in effect of this seismic activity (Merrill, Matthews).
In addition to the earthquakes that hydraulic fracturing causes, millions of gallons of water are used to receive only a small amount of natural gas. Many areas in states such as
Oklahoma and Texas, where much of this drilling is occurring, are suffering stage two and three droughts (Meador, Ron). These states should not be able to allow for the use of millions of gallons of water, especially when they are in lack of the substance itself. Not only does the process require millions of gallons of water, but it also has contaminated underground aquifers, with up to 10 years worth of freshwater in several small cities outside of Oklahoma City
(Meador, Ron). In a world where water is being contaminated faster than it is being replenished, time is running out, and eventually, humans will not have any purified water.
The final issue with the process of hydraulic fracturing is that fact that the process is so ambiguous. The reason that its so mysterious is because nobody, except the people practicing the process, know what liquid is being mixed with the water that is being injected into the ground.
As explained at the vanity fair in 2010, “Claiming that the information is proprietary, drilling
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companies have still not come out and fully disclosed what fracking fluid is made of” (Quotes on the Subject of Fracking). This “proprietary” liquid could be any mixture of chemicals,
