Bill Maher Is A Effin Tool.

[RW]

hydraulic fracturing has allowed America to become almost completely independent from Mid East oil.  other than the possibility of pulluting some water sources there is no danger.

Didn't the fr.acking and waste water injection cause increases in earthquakes in Oklahoma?

I can't recall exactly but I remember a report that found a link between fracking and earthquakes.  I thought it was up north here in either BC or Alberta.

[Anonymous]

Fracking has environmental as well as economic benefits. Nurisdictions that employ the tecnology enjoy abundant, low cost low cost, low emissions energy that is entirely locally produced. It disturbs the smallest amount of land of any energy source. And sorry Harry, it doesn't disturb the water table. That myth was debunked by a Yale university study.



Fracking is the reason the US has become energy self sufficient while Europe is forced to import coal. Fracking technology continues to improve too. Any state or sub state that bans the technology is doing a real disservice to their people and the environment.

[Harry]

hydraulic fracturing has environmental as well as economic benefits. Nurisdictions that employ the tecnology enjoy abundant, low cost low cost, low emissions energy that is entirely locally produced. It disturbs the smallest amount of land of any energy source. And sorry Harry, it doesn't disturb the water table. That myth was debunked by a Yale university study.



hydraulic fracturing is the reason the US has become energy self sufficient while Europe is forced to import coal. hydraulic fracturing technology continues to improve too. Any state or sub state that bans the technology is doing a real disservice to their people and the environment.

Like I said, I don't know much about this stuff.  It's way out of my field.  I know that the potential earnings are huge.



The issue Oz has is that water is a precious resource.  We've got very few rivers, no significant fresh water lakes, and little rainfall, so the rural people are quite paranoid about anything that could screw up the groundwater. It's hard to fault them - even if there's only a tiny chance that something could go wrong, there's no comeback and no alternative water supply if that wrong thing happens.



Apparently, the Russians have got a new take on fr.acking:



Russia Claims To Have Invented Alternative To Fracking



http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Russia-Claims-To-Have-Invented-Alternative-To-Fracking.html">//http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Russia-Claims-To-Have-Invented-Alternative-To-Fracking.html

Russian scientists and local oil field services companies claim to have created a technology for thermochemical gas fracturing that could be an alternative to hydraulic fracturing and could increase oil production by between 1.7 and 6 times, Russia's news agency RIA Novosti reports, citing the University of Tyumen's press service.



In hydraulic fracturing, rocks are fractured with high-pressure injection of fluids, while the new breakthrough technology, as claimed by Russian scientists and media, is creating chemical reactions in the strata that contain oil.



The chemicals react and emit heat and gas, which makes extraction easier and lifts well productivity, according to the scientists and researchers.



The other upside in the technology, the Russians claim, is that the main component in the chemical reactions is ammonium nitrate, which is often used as fertilizer.



According to Professor Konstantin Fedorov, Director of the Institute of Physics and Technology at the University of Tyumen and the scientific consultant on the project, the improved well productivity effect lasts between 300 and 1,000 days. Production increases by between 1.7 times and 6 times compared to the initial output level, although the scientists have seen tests with production increases of 10 to 20 times.



The success rate is close to 100 percent, Fedorov claims, as reported by Russian media.



According to the University of Tyumen, the project—partially supported by government funding—had the goal to create an innovative and, more importantly, Russian method of oil and gas production.



The project partners plan to begin the first tests at operational wells of one of Rosneft's subsidiaries in September, according to the University of Tyumen.



Plans are that the new technology could also be tested at oil fields of other major Russian companies, including Tatneft, Bashneft, and Gazprom Neft, Sputnik International reports.

[Blurt]

But opponents say the industry is whitewashing f.r.a.c.k.i.n.g's real effects, a long list that includes air pollution, groundwater contamination, health problems and surface water pollution.



Recent history supports some of their claims: A f.r.a.c.k.i.n.g well in Bradford County, Pa., operated by Chesapeake Energy Corp., malfunctioned in April 2011, spewing thousands of gallons of contaminated fracking water for more than 12 hours.



And in 2012, Chesapeake was again cited for contaminating the drinking water of three families in Pennsylvania, resulting in a settlement of $1.6 million, according to NPR.org. "Many companies keep their specific 'recipes' for f.r.a.c.k.i.n.g fluids secret, arguing that this is intellectual property," Bjornerud said. "This lack of disclosure makes it difficult to tie any contamination of drinking water to a particular company or well."



Researchers from Duke University tested drinking water at 60 sites throughout Pennsylvania and New York; their research was published in 2011 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.



The researchers found that drinking water near f.r.a.c.k.i.n.g wells had levels of methane that "fell squarely within a range that the U.S. Department of Interior says is dangerous and requires urgent 'hazard mitigation' action," ProPublica reports.



There may be more cases of water that has been contaminated by f.r.a.c.k.i.n.g, but legal settlements and nondisclosure agreements usually prevent access to any documentation of these incidents, The New York Times reports.



A federal study, released in July 2013 by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), found no evidence that chemicals from the f.r.a.c.k.i.n.g process had contaminated groundwater at one Pennsylvania drilling site, The Hill reports.



However, the DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory was quick to issue a statement on the preliminary nature of the report by declaring that, although "nothing of concern has been found thus far, the results are far too preliminary to make any firm claims. We expect a final report on the results by the end of [2013]."



In addition to water quality issues, f.r.a.c.k.i.n.g wells release compounds into the air, such as benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene and n-hexane; long-term exposure to these has been linked to birth defects, neurological problems, blood disorders and cancer. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has found that workers may be exposed to dust with high levels of respirable silica during hydraulic fracturing. These findings were shared after NIOSH studied 116 full shift air samples at 11 hydraulic fracturing sites in five states.



Benzene, for example, is a known carcinogen, according to the American Cancer Society. In 2012, researchers from the Colorado School of Public Health released a study showing that air pollution caused by f.r.a.c.k.i.n.g could contribute to immediate and long-term health problems for people living near f.r.a.c.k.i.n.g sites. Research by over 150 studies suggests that chemicals released during natural gas extraction may harm human reproduction and development.



Additionally, many areas of the United States not considered earthquake-prone, such as Ohio and Oklahoma, are now experiencing relatively strong seismic activity. F.r.a.c.k.i.n.g is believed to be the cause of Oklahoma's strongest recorded quake in 2011 and more than 180 tremors in Texas between 2008 and 2009. To start off 2015, an area of North Texas had nine confirmed earthquakes in a 24-hour period. F.r.a.c.k.i.n.g is being investigated as the cause.

https://www.livescience.com/34464-what-is-racking.html">LiveScience: What Is F.r.a.c.k.i.n.g?

[Angry White Male]

90% of Canada is a barren, frozen wasteland.  A shithole that nobody lives in.



Who gives a FUCK if they frack here and there...

[Blurt]

Uh, our ancestors?

[Angry White Male]

Uh, our ancestors?

What?

[Blurt]

[size=200]Our ancestors?[/size]



What are you, deaf?

[Angry White Male]

Nobody lives there, Blurt.



The Indians didn't even, until they realized $$$.



Canada is a mainly frozen wasteland, with most land area remaining uninhabited by people until this very day.



The fucking Indians can cry all they want, but that's the truth.  In reality, they just want a payout, in the form of the dolla dolla!

[RW]

Why is fr.acking a bad word?  Is it like saying "tar sands" or something?

[Harry]

[size=200]Our ancestors?[/size]



What are you, deaf?

Um, descendants Blurt, descendants.



RW has problems with the ancestor/descendant relationship too.



Maybe it's a Canadian thing.   ac_umm

[RW]

DOH!  Ancestors won't give a shit.  They're dead!

[Anonymous]

f.r.a.c.k.i.n.g wells had levels of methane that "fell squarely within a range that the U.S. Department of Interior says is dangerous and requires urgent 'hazard mitigation' action," ProPublica reports.

The usual  trio of idiotic ladies(Harry, RW and Blurt) shows up armed with bullshit links about an industry they know nothing about. Old Blurt got his ass kicked by  old Jock on Lac Megantic, so  it's my turn to do the same with hydraulic fracturing.

After analyzing 64 samples of groundwater collected from private residences in northeastern Pennsylvania, researchers determined that groundwater contamination was more closely related to surface toxins seeping down into the water than from fracking operations seeping upwards. Their findings were recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.



Researchers also noted that shale underlying the Pennsylvania surface did not cause any organic chemicals to seep into groundwater aquifers.



Researchers from Duke University also recently gave people a reason to trust fracking companies. In a study published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters, scientists explained that hydraulic fracturing accounts for less than one percent of water used nationwide for industrial purposes. This suggested that the natural gas extraction processes are far less water-intensive than we previously thought.

 

It's hoped that these studies will help people better understand the safety of fracking.

Anytime a well of any kind is drilled(including water wells) there is the risk of methane seeping through. In Canada we cement surface casing for fracked wells eliminating any risk. Water wells don't have this requirement.

Hydraulic fracturing doesn't appear to be allowing methane to seriously contaminate drinking water in Pennsylvania, a new study finds—contrary to some earlier, much publicized research that suggested a stronger link. But the lead authors of the two bodies of research are sparring over the validity of the new results.



The new study of 11,309 drinking water wells in northeastern Pennsylvania concludes that background levels of methane in the water are unrelated to the location of hundreds of oil and gas wells that tap hydraulically fractured, or fracked, rock formations. The finding suggests that fracking operations are not significantly contributing to the leakage of methane from deep rock formations, where oil and gas are extracted, up to the shallower aquifers where well water is drawn.



The result also calls into question prominent studies in 2011 and 2013 that did find a correlation in a nearby part of Pennsylvania. There, wells closer to fracking sites had higher levels of methane. Those studies, however, were based on just 60 and 141 domestic well samples, respectively.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/03/methane-drinking-water-unrelated-fracking-study-suggests">http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/03/ ... y-suggests">http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/03/methane-drinking-water-unrelated-fracking-study-suggests

[Harry]

The usual  trio of idiotic ladies(Harry, RW and Blurt) shows up armed with bullshit links about an industry they know nothing about. Old Blurt got his ass kicked by  old Jock on Lac Megantic, so  it's my turn to do the same with hydraulic fracturing.

Hey, I own up to what I don't know.  That's why I said "I don't know much about this stuff. It's way out of my field ".



The fact is, as I pointed out, fra.cking is being held back down here because of concerns about its side effects.  Whether those concerns are justified or not, I don't know.  It would be nice to have a definitive answer because the economic benefits are huge.  On the other hand, if the artesian water gets screwed up, it's not worthwhile because we can't access water from anywhere else throughout a good part of the country.



So, I don't know who's right and who's wrong.  I just watch both sides of the debate with interest.



Also, the links I quoted included the Australian industry's journal.

[Harry]

Coal mining is turning into a bigger problem than fracking at the moment.  



We have only one major dam for a city of 4 million.



And this crap is happening:



http://www.smh.com.au/environment/grave-new-study-finds-significant-impacts-of-coal-mining-in-sydney-catchment-20170912-gyflz5.html">//http://www.smh.com.au/environment/grave-new-study-finds-significant-impacts-of-coal-mining-in-sydney-catchment-20170912-gyflz5.html