What The Frack?!?!?

Natural gas is extracted via a process known as fracking from shale which is located deep beneath the earth's surface. 

Fracking process:


1. Wells are drilled vertically over a kilometre deep, then horizontally for some hundreds of metres (hydrofrac zones).


2. About 12-15 million litres of clean drinking water is mixed with over 500 different chemicals and then pumped under high pressure into the well to cause fractures in the shale and release the methane gas stored within the rock. (thats a lot of water for one well, especially considering that there are over 400 000 wells in the USA, i'll let you do the math)


Check out this link to see how many gas mines there are all over the USA:
http://www.propublica.org/special/map-number-of-producing-gas-wells-708


3. Only a small fraction of this water returns to the surface, this water is highly toxic as it now contains hundreds of chemicals.


4. This returned toxic water is then sprayed into areas known as pits, where it is encouraged to evaporate. (evaporating this toxic water results in air pollution/contamination as well!!!)


Problems: 


Far too many to list, so here are a couple of the main issues that concern the health of the general population.

• A number of the chemicals used in the fracking process are well known carcinogens (cancer causing chemicals) and neurotoxins (they pretty much destroy your brain). Now it doesn't take long to realise that you definitely don't want these chemicals anywhere near, let alone in your drinking water. 

Unfortunately, for residents who live nearby some of these wells, this is exactly what has happened.............

• As alluded to earlier, the majority of the toxic water that is pumped underground, remains underground, thus allowing it to mix with and contaminate the clean, drinking water in underground aquifers. Underground aquifers are reached by farmers through their own personal wells and are the main source of water for people who reside on farmland in the USA.

The above picture is an example of the condition of a farmer's drinking water, that has a nearby Gas well. This picture is taken from the documentary film called "Gasland", by Josh Fox (Guy with the NY hat and hoodie). This gripping documentary film is a must see for everyone around the world, as Josh states at the end of the documentary that exploratory drilling for gas mines have begun all over the world and they could be in your backyard soon.

I'm not sure about you, but i'm pretty sure my drinking water isn't flammable!!! Oh and i'd like it to stay that way.


If you are sitting there wondering how on earth are we allowing this to happen, i have a simple answer for you......watch Gasland! All will be revealed.





As you will also see in the near future here on "Thought You Ought To Know", gas mines are already well established in Queensland and exploratory drilling has commenced in St Peters in Sydney recently......


If you crave more information right now, check out this short clip  from the aforementioned documentary film by Josh Fox, Gasland.