Fracking update
A drill used in the hydraulic fracturing process. Photo by the Ohio Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management.
By Hannah Heekin, CG News
Seventy two percent of Ohioans support a suspension on fracking until the EPA water study is out, according to the recent poll by Quinnipiac University. Voters realize that hydraulic fracturing will create jobs but still choose to defer potential fracking until more information is discovered on the benefits and harms. They believe that hydraulic fracturing could cause potential water contamination, earthquakes due to wastewater injection, community disruption, air pollution, noise and industrialization of landscape.
There has been an immense rush to lease land to fracking companies in Athens County for potential drilling. Athens is on top of Utica shale formation, the only formation that is targeted for hydraulic fracturing, which is why the oil and gas companies are pressuring Athens landowners so frequently to lease them their land.
According to Jim Phillips from The Athens News, leasing land to oil and gas companies has caused different reactions from local Athens residents. Certain landowners are eager to lease their land to these companies in hopes of making profit. On the contrary, environmentalists are opposing these companies approaching into Athens because of the water pollution that fracking may cause.
To this day, no horizontal drilling with high-pressure fracturing has actually been executed in Athens County. Oil and gas companies have been buying land to eventually proceed in the hydraulic fracturing business, but no horizontal drilling has actually been carried out, Phillips said.
It has been recently confirmed that injecting wastewater from fracking wells was the cause of the recent earthquakes in Youngstown, Ohio. Youngstown had 11 reported earthquakes in 2011, the most recent two being on December 24 and December 31. According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, an even more recent earthquake struck Youngstown on January 13, 2012.
Many of these earthquakes were so large on the Richter scale that the shake had been felt in New York. The largest earthquake, on New Year’s Eve, measured a 4.0. The earthquakes have produced no injuries and only minor problems, but is causing mayhem due to the fact that Youngstown had never had an earthquake prior to last year, reported Yahoo journalist Jim Mannion.
Ohio officials have suspended operations involving five of the wells that caused the earthquakes in Youngstown. Due to the December 24 earthquake, the officials have completely shut down the Youngstown injection wells.
Fracking, the common name for horizontal high-pressure hydraulic fracturing, is the process of drilling into shale and creating mini explosions to get gas and oil. It is a major concern because it is supposed to increase in the Mid-Ohio Valley says Marietta Times writer, Ashley Rittenhouse. The main concern in fracking is that black shale contains trace levels of uranium. If this radioactive element got on drilling equipment, fracking fluid, or at the surface, water contamination could occur. Fracking fluid is highly toxic, carcinogenic, and extremely flammable.
To discuss the harms of fracking as an alternative to the benefits, Ohio University will be hosting a community event in Morton Hall Room 237 on Saturday, January 28 at 2:00 p.m. Calvin Tillman, former mayor of Dish, Texas and Dr. S. Thomas Bond, a retired teacher with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry will present their own personal experiences with fracking and will focus on connections between land ownership and the environment in relation to fracking.
I’m really araid of Fracking and feel more studies need to be done on the potential for contaminating our ground water. Perhaps new technologies will help prevent thisand if so the companies doing the fracking should be made to utilize them.
Why is this titled ” A fracking update” ? Are you guys in grade school? WHAT happened to this magazine’s professional journalist talent? You call something an update and it is simply a staff member’s fear? I have no words. HOW DO I UNSUBSRIBE?
We called it “A fracking update” because we wanted to aggregate some of the recent news. I don’t deny that the title is extremely simple.
WHAT’S probably happening, frankly, is fracking is coming to our Appalachian area. Thousands of acres of land have been bought up, a new county resolution is in place to create more regulation and lobbyist’s are continually pushing hard for fracking. Then there’s the fact that many people in the area are cash poor and land rich, at least now that someone wants to buy their land.
Fracking is probably coming. We will work to get more updates but that seems to be the direction were headed.
Editor
Actually, the quakes were only linked to fracking circumstantially. Yes, they are probably the cause, but no scientist has said that. I had a chance to speak to the seismologists who conduted the study, and they’re adament that they lack the proper data to reach a solid conclusion. Also, a “strong” earthquake is pretty relative. 4.0 on the richter is strong, but it probably won’t kill anybody. Also bears mentioning that there was only one well in question. They shut down surrounding sites as a precaution – not because they definitevly linked the cluster of wells to the quakes.
Side note – is this an opinion piece? I can’t tell.
Erich,
I believe the quakes were attributed to the injection of waste water and not the actual hydraulic fracturing process.
This was mean to be an aggregate story which caught our site up with what happened over winter break. I won’t deny our green sway.
Editor