This Is What Fracking Really Looks Like

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/07/19/nina_berman_fractured_the_shale_play_looks_at_lives_affected_by_fracking.html

by sheri • 13 years ago

26 12 13 years ago

slate.com

sl1e2• 13 years ago

False,

ancarda• 13 years ago

Can you expand on that point or is that all you have to say?

icebraining• 13 years ago

Parent may be referring to this: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/07/19/doe-...

sl1e2• 13 years ago

I was a fluid pump operator for a coiled tubing company and we went in and cleaned up after fracking. First hand saw the chemicals. each little spot too.

cliveowen• 13 years ago

Two days ago I watched "Promised Land" which deals with this issue, but I thought it was just hyperbole when they were talking about dying animals and people setting water on fire.

locusm• 13 years ago

Whats happened to good regulatory frameworks in America? Was the breakdown of industry regulation a Bush thing or does it pre-date that? Seems to be a similar theme across Health, Food, Petroleum.

Steko2• 13 years ago

Industries are always working to capture their regulators regardless of administrations. The massive push for deregulation since Reagan has certainly helped destroy it though.

The other side of the problem is the explosion in global energy demand (and hence prices).

tls• 13 years ago

Wait a damn minute here. The EPA came down and even tested the damn waters (*wells) in these areas. Methane had been coming out of the ground before these people were born and now they are saying something? Are these the very people that don't own the land that fracking is leased on?

anon1385• 13 years ago

Perhaps you should give these people the benefit of the doubt before attacking them? "Methane existed before" is very simplistic. Has the amount increased? Has the affected area increased? Is there a change in prevalent isotopes that might give a clue as to the origin of the methane? Is the change enough to put the level over EPA standards?

There isn't really any question that some people have seen an increase in methane in their water supply (unless you believe these people have been living without usable water for decades but only cared to do anything about it once fracking came to town). Working out why is more difficult.

Here is one study (insert usual disclaimer about relying too much on a single paper) http://www.pnas.org/content/108/20/8172.long

Our results show evidence for methane contamination of shallow drinking-water systems in at least three areas of the region and suggest important environmental risks accompanying shale-gas exploration worldwide.

clarkm• 13 years ago

This article isn't anything more than a collection of NIMBY quotes and emotive pictures. It doesn't really have any substance.

There are fair criticisms of hydraulic fracturing, but I've found that most content outside of scientific journals / EPA reports to be incredibly overblown and very inaccurate.

Nux• 13 years ago

I recommend this BBC documentary which tries to shed some light on the matter. Fracking: The New Energy Rush - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjgzrmoLc7g

Steko2• 13 years ago

This article should be #1 on HN right now but has been disappeared.

Shenanigans has been called.

This Is What Fracking Really Looks Like

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