There is a great deal of talk about fracking, but few understand the operation. It is the most environmentally dangerous operation for mining crude oil and natural gas ever invented.

A narrow well extends hundreds and sometimes thousands of feet into the earth. When it reaches the shale, a mixture of sand, water, and chemicals is injected into the well at high pressure, breaking the shale and releasing the crude and natural gas, allowing it to be recovered on the surface. Sounds simple and effective, until you know the particulars.

As many as eight million gallons of water is used for a single operation; water that is badly needed in the western states where fracking is allowed. More than 600 chemicals are mixed with the sand and water, many of which are carcinogenic and all a pollutant to underground water. In addition, fracking is suspected of creating seismic activity where none previously existed, and enhancing the danger for earthquakes where faults are already active. The oil companies are unable to extract 100 percent of the vile water mix; it remains in the soil and underground rivers.

Last week the Nebraska Oil and Gas Commission held hearing to discuss allowing an out of state company to receive a permit to operate fracking wells in rural areas which would result in the production of 10,000 barrels of crude per day. Over 100 hundred residents from the proposed area filled the room.

One farmer produced a container of water he claimed to be waste from a fracking operation. He challenged the commissioners to drink the liquid. At least one of them previously made a claim that he would drink the water retrieved from a fracking operation; they all refused to consume the putrid liquid.

Judy Broeder, who lives near the well site, said she was afraid there were a lot people who look at Sioux County and say “there’s nothing there,” but pointed to the necessity to protect water.

“If we don’t have water, as my 94-year-old dad said, it’ll just be rattlesnakes and rabbits,” she said. “Ask a thirsty person. Do you want water, or do you want crude?”

If you believe advertisements by the oil companies or the Koch brothers on television, you are a fool. They don’t care about human beings, they care about profits.

The commission has 30 days to make a decision. Will big money buy another government agency and create a possible environmental disaster. In my experience living in the United States for 69 years, money seldom loses.

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

Source
Photo Courtesy of Kate Ausburn

Author’s Page http://www.amazon.com/By-James-turnage/e/B00LOCJ2Z2