Are you concerned about the environmental effects of "Fracking"?

[amycat1959]

There's an article and online survey on "Fracking" in this month's "CostCo Connection" magazine... It doesn't require a CostCo membership to read or vote. The full article is here, with (brief) pro and con arguments

Comments

[kareina]

What is "fracking"?

(I am on my phone, so actually looking up strange words is harder than asking)

[amycat1959]

Well, when it's not being used as a non-BLEEP-able-in-prime-time epithet on "Battlestar Galactica", "Fracking" is Hydraulic Fracturing. Basically, to get gas that's trapped in deep shale layers, you drill a well, then inject tons of liquid that includes toxic components, "fracturing" the shale and releasing the gas. It's been linked to such delightful things as toxic and carcinogenic pollution of aquifers, poisoned livestock, and places where there's so much flammable gas, benzene, etc. mixed into the water that people can light their tap-water on fire when they turn on their kitchen faucets, or blow up their wells if they drop a cigarette-end in 'em. (Search YouTube and you can find video of the burning tap-water

[kareina]

Ok, I find it totally ironic that the one who had to ask about this is a geologist. In my defense, I don't do soft-rocks, and have no interest in the "how man can profit from rocks" questions, no no real surprise that I didn't recognize the word.