Shocking Study Shows Fracking Is Depleting US Drinking Water Sources at a Catastrophic Rate

 According to a recent study  conducted at Duke University revealed that Hydraulic fracking is having  a catastrophic impact on water supplies throughout the US. The findings  of the study suggest that fracking is using far much more water than  before, and putting a huge dent in the amount of drinkable water  available in water supplies. 

Hydraulic fracturing is a natural gas extraction method that has  become extremely controversial for its environmental impacts. Fracking  is the process of drilling down into the earth before a high-pressure  water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside. 

Water,  sand, and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure, which  allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well. Wastewater produced  from this process is highly toxic and filled with a variety of  chemicals.

 In many cases, people who live near fracking sites have been able to  set fire to the water and air that comes through their pipes. 

It has  also been found to contaminate drinking water.  Unfortunately, fracking is still somewhat popular publicly because  people know very little about it and it is also popular politically  because all of the politicians have a hand in it. 

Due to an increased prevalence of seismic activity in the vicinity of  fracking areas, many activists have pointed out that this process may  cause earthquakes as well. The abstract of the study reads: 

Unconventional oil and gas exploration in the United  States has experienced a period of rapid growth, followed by several  years of limited production due to falling and low natural gas and oil  prices. Throughout this transition, the water use for hydraulic  fracturing and wastewater production in major shale gas and oil  production regions has increased; from 2011 to 2016, the water use per  well increased up to 770%, while flowback and produced water volumes  generated within the first year of production increased up to 1440%. The  water-use intensity (that is, normalized to the energy production)  increased ubiquitously in all U.S. shale basins during this transition  period. The steady increase of the water footprint of hydraulic  fracturing with time implies that future unconventional oil and gas  operations will require larger volumes of water for hydraulic  fracturing, which will result in larger produced oil and gas wastewater  volumes.

Fracking is especially harmful to water supplies because the water is  nearly impossible to treat after exposed to the chemicals, meaning it  could be lost to the world permanently. 

“In addition, the water used for hydraulic fracturing is retained  within the shale formation; only a small fraction of the fresh water  injected into the ground returns as flowback water, while the greater  volume of FP water returning to the surface is highly saline, is  difficult to treat, and is often disposed through deep-injection wells.  This means that despite lower water intensity compared to other energy  resources, the permanent loss of water use for hydraulic fracturing from  the hydrosphere could outweigh its relatively lower water intensity,” the study says. 

Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke’s  Nicholas School of the Environment, and co-author of the study, said  that this study encompassed many years of data collected about fracking.  

“Previous studies suggested hydraulic fracturing does not use  significantly more water than other energy sources, but those findings  were based only on aggregated data from the early years of fracking.  After more than a decade of fracking operation, we now have more years  of data to draw upon from multiple verifiable sources. We clearly see a  steady annual increase in hydraulic fracturing’s water footprint, with  2014 and 2015 marking a turning point where water use and the generation of flowback and produced water began to increase at significantly higher rates,” Vengosh told Phys.org. 

As The Free Thought Project has reported in the past, whistleblower  scientists have come forward to say that they were threatened and told  to keep silent about the possible dangers that fracking has to drinking water and the environment. Just last week, the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project (EHP) and published a study showing that fracking in the state is done dangerously close to homes and businesses.