The Danger of Hydraulic Fracking
Introduction
Hydraulic fracking is a time old method of making holes for mining oil. It uses a combination of materials in a chemical cocktail that is then used at high pressure to fracture rock formation and open up any passages.There is a discussion right now whether or not it is the most safe and ethical way to drill for oils. The fracking fluids that are used often leave waste that contains materials that are hazardous to the environment. There have been several cases where people have had complications of their health due to the waste fluids leaking into drinking water. The materials that are often involved in fracking are acids, salts and other organic compounds. Both the fracking …show more content…
Edward A.L. Roberts saw firsthand what explosives could do. From seeing the damage that artillery could do on the soil, and how far the craters extended, Edward had the idea to use nitroglycerin in the process of mining for oil. In 1865 he made a patent for an “improvement in Exploding Torpedoes in Artesian Wells.” In 1866 he attended the “Roberts Torpedo.” They would lower a torpedo into a vein and then fill the remaining space in the hole with water. The production from the wells would increase as much as 1,200 percent. roberts company became very popular and successful after that. In the 1930s the use of acid was introduced to hydraulic fracking, which enabled the fractures to remain open longer, thus allowing better productivity. By the 1940s hydraulic fracking had become a popular means of shooting wells. In 1949 the first application of commercial hydraulic fracking took place by Halliburton.The commercial hydraulic fracking was a huge experimental success. In the 1970s the safe Drinking Water Act was passed, banning or regulating the injection of materials. The Epa ruled that fracking does not fall under this category, meaning that fracking as free game regarding the injection of materials into the soil. By the 1990s there had been nearly one million uses of hydraulic fracking. Starting in the 80s though there started reports of water contamination from hydraulic fracking. The first case was in 1987, in Jackson County. Fracking fluid has leaked from a Kaiser Exploration well into the private will of James Parson. In 1996 a lawsuit was filed against the EPA by the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation(LEAF), stating that fracking fluid must be regulated by the EPA. The court case went on for a year and by 1997 the U.S. Court of Appeals came to an agreement with LEAF, stating that under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), that the EPA had an obligation to monitor fracking fluids. In 2003 George