Jingsamichty

I wonder how many shiny new iPhone 6s will get sold in Vancouver or Toronto to people who rail against the tar sands...?

Novocastrian

No, it's not. Sometimes water isn't even used but rather LPG and sometimes sand isn't used but rather ceramic granules. In all cases additives are used to change the viscosity of the fracking fluid and others as gelling agents.

Fracking was indeed first tried in 1947 but has only become economical since 2000 or so when horizontal fracking became possible due to advances in drilling technology.

The author of the report mentioned by the OP, David Wheeler is a personal friend and former colleague of mine. He isn't a raving environmentalist but is staunchly pro-business albeit with the caveat that the business be sustainable.

I haven't read his report but I can assure you it will have been fair and intellectually rigorous. He's a very smart guy.

BristolUK

That'll be the radiation poisoning.

Piff Poff

Is it?? Why are there hazard sign and venting systems on the fracking trucks then?? And why was my well water drinkable before fracking and is not drinkable now?

scrubbedexpat091

I find fracking and such a necessary evil if we want to maintain our modern lifestyle. I do hope in the future we have cleaner more earth friendly alternatives, but we kind of have to put up with it for now since we do need natural gas, oil and the like.

If only people were up in arms about the clear cutting of forests as they are over oil and gas extraction.

The old mine down the road from Squamish that is a museum now, still has water being treated for contaminants from the metal mining that occurred there, and its been 40 some odd years since the mine closed. But people want their gold, silver and other metals.

GC44

Hope it ain't banned out here, that would be 50% of my job up the swanny !

gryphea

I think the point is that fracking might be doable in a way that is acceptable but I think the regulation is sooo poor that quite bad things are happening. I suspect an acceptable way involves much more characterisation of the ground and aquifers and that makes it too expensive.

The chemicals used are pretty nasty, but even forgetting that, the entire point is to fracture the ground to allow in ground movement of hydrocarbons. Unfortunately a side effect is that it also connects aquifers with hydrocarbon deposits that they previously weren't connected to and also messes up the biogeochemistry. Hence all the problem with wells, all over the place.

I think groundwater is a fairly important resource going forward and in areas where its relied on I am not sure fracking, under the current regulation and standards of practice, makes any sense.

I recommend reading 'Stupid to the last drop'. Sure it probably biased in its slant, but nonetheless its quite an informative read.

Novocastrian

That's got my vote for Most Sensible, Balanced and Well Informed Post of the Year.

The other thing to mention though is with the new(isn) horizontal drilling, the extractors don't tell people that they're extracting right below their feet (or well).

Piff Poff

The Gasland documentary is interesting too.

Jingsamichty

I agree with you 100%. Fracking is daft.

gryphea

Our company is dealing with a water dam at the moment that has border line stability. There was a no-fracking radius around it to prevent them undermining the dam; but they went in horizontally. Unbelievable.

Ontheboatout

It's not been around since the 1940's - high volume high pressure deep shale fracking is a new technology and proven to cause seismic activity. Shallow low volume low pressure fracking has been around since the 1940s. Anyone moving to Canada should check out if fracking might be happening in their area - its not just the seismic and chemicals, its the noise, lights, smell, traffic, accidents and spills. Information on my FB page Stop Fracking in Nova Scotia. If it had come to NS we would have gone - quite enlightened to ban it.

catpea33

Fracking depths aren't usually near aquifer depths and the fractures created are monitored by lovely people like me in the microseismics industry. The times where aquifers have been affected by fracking are extremely minimal, especially given how much fracking is conducted in North America.

Piff Poff

Sorry if I don't believe you, when my neighbours built my house the well water was drinkable - for years. Then fracking was carried out and the well water now has to be treated to be drinkable. I'm sure I am one of many, there are too many reports out there to say that fracking causes problems. Lets see, if we can't destroy the earth by what we're doing on top, lets drill and destabilize what's underneath....

I know oil and gas is a necessity but doing things that wreck fresh water supplies is just plain stupid.

Souvy

Fracking doesn't contaminate water supplies, faulty shale gas wells do - Telegraph

Just to add fuel to the fire (or kitchen sink).