In the pursuit of energy independence, a lot of attention has been dedicated to the discovery of local sources of energy. Fracking, a technique employed worldwide for the extraction of natural gas, is likely a term you’re familiar with. However, there are a wide variety of instances, some proven in a court of law and others still under review, in which the fracking process has caused critical problems with community water.
First, what is fracking?
Fracking is a gas-extraction process which involves drilling deep into the earth to extract pockets of natural gas. Due to the nature in which fracking cuts into layers of the earth to get at gas, incidents have occurred in which a community has faced contaminated water as a result of the practice. High pressure mixtures of chemicals, including sand, water and other substances, are pressed into the ground, releasing natural gas from shale. The problem, though, occurs when substances like methane gas and the chemicals used within the drilling process enter the community’s water.
Fracking is, of course, a topic of significant public debate, both for its cost versus benefit nature and because there is still more to be understood about this particular technique. What is not up for debate, though, is that events have occurred during a company’s fracking efforts that have directly caused problems with public water. The chemicals required for fracking can be dangerous, making their insertion into the water table extremely harmful. As depths of fracking piping can extend to over 10,000 feet below the surface, the room for error is significant.
The EPA, during 2015, announced that fracking has resulted in contaminated water for communities where drilling took place. Rather than focus on the sustainability of fracking, though, we want to highlight here the need for corrective solutions to be found for those impacted by these disasters. If your community has faced water issues as a result of fracking, your problems are not insignificant. For more information on next steps to recover for the harm and damages suffered as a result of contaminated water tied to fracking, please contact us today.
Concerns about your family’s health due to fracking nearby? Have you found your water to be contaminated as a result of fracking? Call our offices at (844) 820-0675 or fill out our online form today.