How long hydraulic fracturing

In many states, this wastewater is pumped back underground into separate "injection wells. That raises the risk of either accidental spills or improper treatment. In , three treatment plants in Pennsylvania were fined for dumping waste into the Allegheny River.

Air pollution: Once an area of shale has been fracked, natural gas begins flowing up out of the well. Most of this methane is typically captured, but some of it can escape into the air or leak out of pipelines — and methane is a potent greenhouse gas, heating the planet. Separately, another report found that certain chemical gases such as benzene can escape into the air, posing health risks for nearby residents in Colorado.

In , the EPA began requiring oil and gas companies to limit these emissions and capture the escaped gas. Oil and gas companies typically add chemicals to the water used for fracking. Those chemicals can help decrease friction or prevent corrosion and so forth. They typically make up about 0. Different operations require different chemicals, but all told some 2, different fracking chemicals have been identified. A good list can be found here.

Some of the additives used are quite ordinary, including salt and citric acid. Others, like benzene, are toxic. One congressional investigation identified at least toxic additives that have been used. It can sometimes be difficult to get a full list of chemicals used.

Many fracking companies are now listing the compounds they employ on their websites, and some states like Texas have public disclosure laws, but these rules can vary from state to state. Fracking requires a lot of water to crack open the shale rock. A typical well can use between 2 million to 7 million gallons over the course of its lifetime.

How much is that all together? In , water used for shale wells represented about 0. But the percentages can vary by region — in Texas, it's about 1 percent. That raises the question of whether it can stress local water supplies. In dry regions of Texas or Colorado, fracking operations can put a fair bit of stress on local water sources. But that's not universal. In the Marcellus region in the East, by contrast, studies have found that there's no danger of a water shortage.

Fracking is currently regulated by the states, who have very different rules on everything from the disclosure of chemicals to wastewater treatment to well casings. You can find a number of useful maps showing the state of play for different fracking regulations at Resources for the Future.

This map, for instance, shows how different states regulate the injection of wastewater underground. Missouri has no regulations, whereas North Carolina has a statewide ban:. One major issue is whether the US federal government should get more involved in fracking regulations. Currently, the Environmental Protection Agency has issued rules requiring oil and gas companies to limit air pollution from fracking operations, and it is currently studying groundwater contamination.

But, for now, the feds have tread lightly. And Congress has exempted fracking from certain provisions of the Clean Water Act. Some states and localities, meanwhile, have proposed blanket bans on fracking. New York state, for instance, has had a moratorium since Here's a longer list of regulations in the United States.

Fracking itself has rarely been linked to earthquakes though Ohio is investigating this. But the disposal of all the wastewater used in fracking has been known to cause tremors. Once a well is fracked, there are thousands of gallons of wastewater left over. Companies often dispose of that chemical-laced water by pumping it into separate underground "injection wells.

If those rocks lie near a geologic fault, that could trigger a tremor. At least, that's the theory. One study by the U. Geologic Survey found that earthquakes were on the rise in areas where wastewater injection was increasing.

A follow-up study found that wastewater injection likely caused a earthquake in Oklahoma. It's worth noting that not all injection wells are associated with earthquakes, and many of these events were minor tremors. Still, there are plenty of questions about whether these earthquakes could get stronger as fracking expands. As of , the United States had billion barrels of oil and 2, trillion cubic feet of natural gas that was "technically recoverable.

This is oil and gas that we currently have the technology to access. But that doesn't mean we'll actually extract all that oil and gas. A lot depends on economic conditions. If prices go higher, then it will become more profitable for companies to drill for more oil and gas.

But if prices fall, it becomes less profitable and they might just leave it in the ground. That's why many analysts focus on a different measure, known as "proved reserves" — the stuff we could recover given existing technology and economic conditions. By that measure, there are 29 billion barrels of oil and To put that all into perspective, the United States consumed about 7 billion barrels of oil and 26 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in So that means we have anywhere from a 13 years' supply of natural gas to an 84 years' supply.

It all depends. Lots of things. What happens to the flowback fluid? Q A See Answer. What is frac fluid made of? How is water managed in the fracking process? How are spills prevented during fracking? Are there rules for fracking in Canada? Why do we frac? How and where do drillers dispose of waste hydraulic fracturing fluid?

After a well is brought on Are other countries using hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas extraction? Yes, hydraulic fracturing is being used extensively in Canada and is increasingly being used in countries in Asia, Europe, and South America.

Learn more: Hydraulic Fracturing Induced Earthquakes. Filter Total Items: 4. Year Published: Data regarding hydraulic fracturing distributions and treatment fluids, additives, proppants, and water volumes applied to wells drilled in the United States from through Comprehensive, published, and publicly available data regarding the extent, location, and character of hydraulic fracturing in the United States are scarce. Gallegos, Tanya J. Year Published: Trends in hydraulic fracturing distributions and treatment fluids, additives, proppants, and water volumes applied to wells drilled in the United States from through data analysis and comparison to the literature Hydraulic fracturing is presently the primary stimulation technique for oil and gas production in low-permeability, unconventional reservoirs.

Year Published: Water quality studied in areas of unconventional oil and gas development, including areas where hydraulic fracturing techniques are used, in the United States Domestic oil and gas production and clean water are critical for economic growth, public health, and national security of the United States.

Susong, David D. View Citation. Water quality studied in areas of unconventional oil and gas development, including areas where hydraulic fracturing techniques are used, in the United States; ; FS; ; Susong, David D.

Year Published: Unconventional natural gas resources on U. Unconventional natural gas resources on U. Filter Total Items: 7. Date published: October 14, Date published: May 31, Date published: May 9, Date published: June 30, Date published: May 27, Date published: January 27, Date published: June 20, Virgin Islands. Filter Total Items: List Grid.

May 31, Oil and gas operations are "inducing" these earthquakes. The earthquake rate has dropped by more than 50 percent due to changes in industry. November 17, Amy Townsend Small. The Delaware Basin samples show no dissolved methane other than associated to a recent blowout. Also, based on an evaluation of hydraulic fracturing history, and methods used in the Pavillion Gas Field, it is unlikely that hydraulic fracturing has caused any impacts to the water-supply wells. Encouragingly, drinking water sources affected by disclosed surface spills could be targeted for treatment and monitoring to protect public health.

This result is encouraging, because it implies there is some degree of temporal and spatial separation between injected fluids and drinking water supply. Environmental Protection Agency : No evidence of widespread water contamination from fracking. District Court, Wyoming : Experts have confirmed no water contamination from fracking.

Geological Survey : No water contamination from fracking in West Virginia. Geological Survey : Fracking had no effect on groundwater wells in Arkansas. Even if upward migration from a target formation to potable aquifer were hypothetically possible, the rate of migration would be extremely slow and the resulting dilution of the fluids would be very large…Given the overall implausibility and very high dilution factor, this exposure pathway does not pose a threat to drinking water resources.

Government Accountability Office : The fracking process has not been identified as a cause of groundwater contamination. Neither state has identified hydraulic fracturing as the cause of a single documented groundwater contamination incident. The dSGEIS further observes that regulatory officials from 15 states recently testified that groundwater contamination as a result of the hydraulic fracturing process in the tight formation itself has not occurred.

As indicated in Table 2. The shallow layers are protected from injected fluid by a number of layers of casing and cement — and as a practical matter fracturing operations cannot proceed if these layers of protection are not fully functional.