Page 182 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

7 Natural gas is collected in
Tanker trucks Pumper trucks tanks and trucked to pipeline
deliver water inject water,
sand, chemicals
1 Well is
drilled

0

8 Waste water from underground
1000 ft Aquifer is dumped in pits and evaporated
Cement
casing
Water and sand Gas
2000

3000 5 Sand grains Sand and
in fracking
Steel fluid hold fracking Gas
casing fissures open fluids
4000
6 Natural gas
5000 2 Casing surrounds seeps through
well pipe as it goes fissures and
through aquifer up pipe
6000
4 Pressurized fracking fluids
pass through holes in pipe
7000 and fracture rock
3 Well turns
horizontally upon
Shale
8000 formation reaching shale
deposit

Figure 7.1 Hydraulic fracturing is used to extract natural gas trapped in shale deposits deep
underground. A well is drilled 1 with protective casing 2 and is turned horizontally 3 upon reaching a
shale deposit. Pressurized fluids fracture the rock 4 , and sand lodges in the cracks 5 , holding them open
for natural gas 6 to seep into them and rise through the pipe to the surface 7 . Polluted fluids also rise to the
surface and are piped to wastewater pits 8 .

By boosting production of natural gas, hydrofracking informed judgments about any potential health or environmental
employs people and keeps the price of gas low. Expanded use of effects of fracking. CHAPTER 7 • Envi R onm E n TA l Poli C y : mA king D EC i si ons A n D s olving P R obl E m s
natural gas reduces the United States’ dependence on burning In such a climate of uncertainty, people in places like
coal for electricity. Because natural gas is cleaner-burning than Dimock are left to wonder, worry, and argue. Victoria Switzer
oil or coal, burning it in place of these other fossil fuels reduces and several dozen other families in town eventually brought
the greenhouse gas emissions that lead to climate change. lawsuits against Cabot, but many of their neighbors are angry
For all these reasons, policymakers have encouraged hydro- with them. Residents whose water has not been affected—and
fracking. They have freed it from many regulatory constraints those who decided that receiving gas payments was worth the
that would normally apply to such a process. Drilling companies health risks from pollution—blame their fellow townspeople who
have been exempted from seven major federal environmental have spoken out about water quality for bringing global media
laws that protect public health, including the National Environ- attention to Dimock and driving down property values. Victoria
mental Policy Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. Switzer’s neighbor Anne Teel experienced water problems from
As a result, gas companies do not need to report the chem- the eight gas wells on her property but says Cabot helped fix
ical additives they use during the fracking process, nor do they them and that those bringing the lawsuit are doing their town a
need to test for chemical compounds that are drawn up from the disservice.
ground in fracking wastewater. Much of this wastewater is radio- When outside influences disrupt a community and cause
active because drillers add radioisotopes (p. 42) as tracers to the neighbor to turn against neighbor, some wondered, can’t gov-
fracking fluids they inject, and because naturally occurring radio- ernment help by enforcing rules to protect the public welfare and
isotopes are brought up from deep underground. Consequently, to ensure that people are treated equally and justly?
no one—neither regulators nor policymakers nor scientists nor After recognizing that for some Dimock families the water
homeowners—has access to the data necessary to make fully was undrinkable, Pennsylvania’s DEP eventually fined Cabot and 181

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