Is fracking worth the risk?

The most recent of two moratoriums imposed by minister Susan Shabangu on the use of the fracking-technique to explore for natural gas expires in February. At this stage there is no indication which way the minister will go on the issue, but the latest developments globally clearly call for extreme caution. Pollution of drinking water might not be the biggest danger from what is essentially human-induced earthquakes.

At the end of last year a report by the US Environmental Protection Agency found, after a study over three years, that hydraulic fracturing – known as “fracking” – in Wyoming was the likely source of contamination of groundwater. Absolute conclusive proof of contamination will remain extremely difficult, but the indications are strong enough for the burden of proof of non-contamination to shift to those commercial interests who seek permission to make use of fracking.

Another, perhaps even more serious, reason why extreme caution should be the order of the day has also come to the fore anew: the probable link between fracking and earthquakes in both the United Kingdom and the US.

The UK's sole operational fracking site, near Blackpool, was suspended in June following complaints from locals about two earthquakes in April and May. The subsequent report into the seismic activity and fracking concluded last month that it is "highly probable" that there was a connection.

In the US another study by the University of Memphis into earthquakes in an area where they were unknown has concluded thst there was “a plausible relationship between the injection wells and the earthquakes” after a fault system was discovered.

There has been much hype about the economic and related benefits, such as  employment opportunities, offered by the development of natural gas resources. But, the responsible authorities should be careful to take heed of  information that sometimes gets crowded out by the hype.

It is for instance highly disturbing that as long ago as 1990 a US Geological Survey report found that “injection of fluid into deep wells has triggered documented earthquakes” in Colorado, Texas, New York, New Mexico, Nebraska and Ohio. It highlighted more than 70 quakes in July 1987 in Ashtabula, Ohio, about a kilometre from the bottom of a hazardous-waste disposal well in operation for only a year. There had been no other known earthquakes within 30 kilometres since 1857, it said.

There are also strong arguments for the development of domestic natural gas resources. Natural gas is cleaner-burning than other hydrocarbons and could displace,  oil and coal. Increased domestic capacity also lessens reliance on unstable foreign sources of energy.

But the Wyoming and Blackpool experiences suggest there is no reason to be blithely confident that the widespread injection of contaminants into the earth poses no risk.

Prudence requires a complete understanding of the potential risks and benefits of fracking.

They raise questions whether enough is known about the practice to ignore risks in the name of jobs and domestic energy independence. Fracking, and the entire process of shale gas extraction, is probably not the solution to our energy challenges, instead the scraping of the bottom of the geological barrel is bringing unacceptable health, climate, and environmental consequences while delaying and distracting us from developing sustainable renewable energy sources.

Existing scientific understanding is inadequate for really responsible risk management. The environmental and health consequences of shale gas drilling are hard to measure, but are pervasive and potentially irreversible. The chemical mixture in fracking-fluid is only one of many sources of environmental contamination; abandoned capped wells, after economic production ends, will be hazards for millennia to come – far beyond all human experience with concrete and steel’s durability.

Piet Coetzer

• Add New
• Search

Comments (0)

Write comment

Your Contact Details:

Name:

Email: do not notifynotify

Comment:

Title:

Message:

Security

Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 4.0 beta2