Flammable Tap Water

Fracking impacts on freshwater use and contamination are one of its biggest disadvantages as an energy source.

1-8 million gallons of water is needed to frack a single well which puts extreme pressures on limited fresh water resources. The US is currently using 72 trillion gallons of water to frack its 500,000 active wells. This is particularly a problem right now in California where there is already a severe drought, the worst in over 500 years. Drilling for both natural gas and oil is thought to be increasing risks of earthquakes and water shortage in an area where these concerns are already prominent. 

There is also the issue of water contamination from fracking fluid. 6 US states have reported more than 1000 incidents of contamination from fracking and the leakage of methane into groundwater. Methane levels have been found to be 17 times higher in drinking water wells close to fracking sites compared to normal wells. It has also been found that up to 52% of the chemicals found in fracking fluid have the potential to cause serious sensory, neurological and respiratory health problems. In many areas this has made tap water undrinkable and there have even been reports of people being able to set their kitchen tap water alight due to gas contamination.  But not only do the chemicals used pollute ground and drinking water, around half of them are left in the ground indefinitely, only 10-25% is recovered and returns to the surface as concentrated brine (Loh et al., 2015). 

This website shows clearly the full process of how fracking for natural gas works and how it can lead to dangerous groundwater contamination: http://www.dangersoffracking.com/

So clearly there are a lot of problems with fracking as a new source of energy but can these impacts be controlled in the future? Mitigation policies will be discussed in my next few blogs along with advantages of fracking and public opinions.