âWho would have thought anything would ever Now, just a few feet over her fence line, an energy company plans to drill.
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Slide 6: 79-year-old Mary Alice Heaney retired years ago from the Bronx to a remote dirt road in Pennsylvaniaâs Lycoming County. Slide 5: Energy companies strictly control access to wells the Columbia study focuses on nearby homes. Here, workers assemble pipe at a new well. Slide 4: Setting up each well requires thousands of truckloads of material and machinery. Here, tanks at a newly drilled site await use. Slide 3: Volatile chemicals and gas, as well as hazardous natural substances from deep underground can reach air or water if a well is not working properly. His vest carries sensors to record air quality and noise levels as he walks. Slide 2: Geochemist Beizhan Yan of Columbia Universityâs Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is studying the environmental effects. Slide 1: In the verdant hill country of northeast Pennsylvania, thousands of acres of onetime farmland are being leveled to host large-scale hydrofracking operations. Use the previous and next buttons to change the displayed slide Yan and Ross hope to help provide that information. The photo essay below shows their work over one day this summer.Ī carousel is a rotating set of images. But no one can say whether specific health effects are linked to fracking, and if so, to which of the many substances it might introduce into the environment. And, files just released by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection record 243 cases in which drilling has contaminated drinking-water wells. With new wells being drilled all the time, Yan and Ross are recruiting nearby homeowners to help them test groundwater and air for potential toxins before, during and after fracking. University of Pennsylvania medical researchers studying the region have already shown that people living in heavily fracked areas have been visiting hospitals increasingly for skin, respiratory and cardiovascular ailments since the boom began in 2007. But scientists are far behind in understanding how this boom affects people near wells. Geochemists Beizhan Yan and James Ross of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are trying to fill in this gap in rural northeastern Pennsylvania, where thousands of fracking operations have taken over formerly quiet hilltops, farms and back roads. Some 45,000 fracked wells now produce 40 percent of U.S. shale-gas production has increased 700 percent. Each and every well requires millions of gallons of water – In arid places like the West, this could mean less water for fish and wildlife.Ten years ago, extraction of natural gas from shale by hydraulic fracturing barely existed. Without rigorous safeguards, fracking could lead to poisoned water and blighted landscapes. Hydraulic fracturing operations are already industrializing wild and rural landscapes, and putting agricultural and recreational economies at risk. And the federal government doesn’t require that companies disclose what is in the fracking fluid – letting millions of gallons of toxic fluid into the ground on each drilling site without anyone but the drilling companies knowing what is in it. For example, toxic fracking fluids, including known cancer-causing chemicals like benzene and toluene, are exempt from federal regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act. “Flowback” water can contaminate streams and water supplies. The rush into fracking has not kept pace with important environmental safeguards. Unfortunately, this process can go wrong, and if the oil or gas wells are not built sturdily enough, they can leak and contaminate groundwater. Why is fracking dangerous for the environment and people? However, without rigorous safety regulations, it can poison groundwater, pollute surface water, impair wild landscapes, and threaten wildlife.įracking is done by drilling deep into the earth, then using small explosions and a mix of water, sand, and chemicals to break up shale rock formations that contain natural gas and oil.
![all fracked up all fracked up](http://www.observer-review.com/files/image/All%20Fracked%20Up.jpg)
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![all fracked up all fracked up](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-35v2-zi2qU/hqdefault.jpg)
Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is revolutionizing oil and gas drilling across the country.