Fracking

I hate when a red squiggly line appears under a word I am considering for my blog because as soon as I see it I have to wonder if it’s really a word. Fracking is and it’s synonymous with hydraulic fracturing. Fracking is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside. Yep, I have been watching those natural gas commercials that claim our energy future is bright but my skeptical nature got me looking into this process. It takes from one to eight million gallons of water to complete one fracking job. 600 chemicals, many known carcinogens and toxins, are added to make the fracking fluid which is pressure injected into the ground. 50% of the fluid (which is not biodegradable) is never recovered so those toxins and carcinogens along with methane leaches and contaminates the earth and water sources. Although there are no fracking sites near us here in Georgia or Florida, there are plenty of sites all across our country. And when you do the math, it adds up to equal 72 trillion gallons of water and 360 billion gallons of chemicals are needed to run our current gas wells. In the end, hydraulic fracking produces approximately 300,000 barrels of natural gas a day, and is exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act but at what cost? Too fracking much if you ask me.