| Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing, fracing, and fracture stimulation, is when shale gas drilling companies come to an area, buy up drilling rights from landowners, cut new roads and raze patches of land in formerly undisturbed natural environments, cart in and out tens of millions of gallons of water and tons of chemicals and "proppants" like sand with hundreds of big rig trucks that produce tons of diesel emissions and wear down existing roads, drill holes that go vertically down and then horizontally under multiple properties, mix the water, chemicals, and proppants together on-site to make fracking fluid, run compressors that produce more diesel emissions to pump the fluid into the wells at high pressure to shatter underground deposits of shale and release bound-up natural gas, pump some of the fluid back out and cart it off to who knows where while leaving the rest underground, install permanent equipment to "clean" and capture most of the natural gas that comes back up the well and to release gas into the air when there's excess pressure, and then pack up, go home, and cash checks while the land stays pockmarked with drill pads, the air's been polluted with volatile organic compounds, and the water supply of everyone downstream is left in jeopardy. | Views: 343 1 ratings |
