Proposition: I will lend the opportunity for my classmates to understand the meaning of the word “fracking” and how the processes, environmental impacts, and need for standardized regulations are needed in this forum.
Introduction:
I. Attention Getter: Show 10 second clip of flaming faucet
II. Reveal Topic: My intentions today are to persuade my fellow classmates about the inherent dangers and potentially life threatening consequences of fracking
III. Establish Credibility: As I am not formally trained or a scholar of this discipline, I do however, have just less than 50 years of experience living, breathing and experiencing life as a human on planet earth. As a member of her society, as does a mother to a child or a wife to her spouse, I am often concerned and responsive to the Planets health and well-being. Based on the expert and verifiable resources utilized for this speech, I hope to provide sufficient evidence that fracking has detrimental and extremely negative consequences to both the earth and its inhabitants.
IV. Preview Main Points: With that said, I will first focus briefly on the history and process of fracking. I will then provide examples of environmental concerns directly related to the processes involving fracking, and lastly I will present arguments which support the need for further federal agency and environmental studies regarding the impact of hydraulic fracturing.
Body
I. Fracking as it’s more commonly known is actually a hybrid word derived from hydro fracturing or hydraulic fracturing. Fracking involves injecting water, propping agents such as sand and chemicals deep into the earth at extremely high pressures to break up layers of rock that harbor deposits of natural gas and/or oil. Hundreds of thousands of new oil and gas wells have been drilled in the past decade, and oil and gas development is now occurring in about thirty states. Amongst these thirty states, is the existence of twenty-six productive shale-gas formations stretched from the Northeast corner to the shores of California. The most active are the massive Marcellus Shale, a 575-mile long formation undergirding New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. A. Stimulating oil wells has a long history, in our country. In the 1860’s drillers poured nitroglycerin down hard-rock wells to enhance performance; and by the 1930’s while looking for a non-explosive way to stimulate wells, drillers began using acid to break up underground rock formations that contained oil. In 1947, a mixture of napalm thickened with gasoline was injected into the Hugoton gas field in Kansas. After many more tests were conducted, a process, called Hydrofrac was finally patented in 1949. The Halliburton Oil Cementing Company was granted the exclusive license to use the new technology. 1. Based on the policy of the National Resource Defense Council, fracking has raised concerns about contaminated drinking water supplies, increased air pollution, toxic waste disposal, impairment of rivers and streams, and destruction of landscapes and wildlife habitat. I will touch on three of these concerns: the chemicals used in fracking, causes of water contamination and seismic activity 2. While some of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing are common and generally harmless, some additives used in the United States are known carcinogens. Out of 2,500 hydraulic fracturing additives, more than 650 contained known or possible human carcinogens regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act or listed as hazardous air pollutants. Based on the findings by Environment America, a 2011 study identified 632 chemicals used in United States natural gas operations, of which only 353 are well-described in the scientific literature. However, the long anticipated comprehensive study about the impact of hydraulic fracturing on groundwater is to be released in 2014 by the EPA. It will be the first study of this scale to address whether or not there
