Hydraulic Fracking

Hydraulic fracking is a way to extract natural gas from the ground. To remove the gas the engineers drill far down into the earth into layers of shale then pump a high pressure mixture of water, sand, and chemicals. The mixture fractures the shale that then releases the natural gases. The high pressured mixture then pushes the gases to the top of the drilling site.

While the idea of finding full on American soil may sound very nice but fracking has cause many problems with the environment. The first major problem is that fracking needs massive amounts of waters. The problem is extremely evident in Texas when the drought was at the worst point there was a massive reservoir that was next to many local farms but the water could not be used by the farmers because it was owned by a major oil company. The second biggest problem is that the chemicals used during the fracking process are known carcinogens. A carcinogen is a chemical that is known to cause cancer. After the drilling operation the chemicals can contaminate the ground water risking pollution of the ground water and well water used by civilians. There is also a worry that fracking will cause small earth tremors. Before fracking was invented stats like Oklahoma never had earth quakes but now have small earth quakes. The fracturing of the shale is thought to cause small disturbances that cause the small tremors.