Title: Hydraulic Fracturing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Professor Hessler
English 100WB
5 May 2018
Hydraulic Fracturing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Around the world, strategies to extract natural gas and oil has become increasingly
popular. The demand for oil continues to rise, which worries some countries that do not have an
abundance of oil readily available. Hydraulic fracturing is “a method of extracting oil and gas
trapped in shale and other rock formations” (www.theguardian.com). In future generations, the
Earth might not have any natural gas or oil left to be pumped or fracture because we are
constantly in need of more gas/oil. Hydraulic fracturing has the possibility to affect our
ecosystem by destroying animal habitats both on land and in water. The more fracturing we
conduct, the greater the risk of natural disasters such as flooding and earthquakes. Although
hydraulic fracturing could potentially help countries’ oil supplies, the negative consequences that
follow “fracking” could outweigh the benefits.
Hydraulic fracturing is performed by injecting large amounts of water is injected to crack
underground rocks in order to extract oil. According to Adam Vaughan, an author from The
Guardian, water contamination is one of the main concerns of environmentalists everywhere. “A
years-long piece of research by the US Environmental Protection Agency concluded in 2016 that
in some cases fracking had harmed drinking water supplies” (www.theguardian.com). Hydraulic
fracturing is expanding which causes more water wells to become contaminated. The more wells
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Title: Hydraulic Fracturing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
that are created, the more risk of contamination of the nearby drinking water wells. Untreated
waste water that runs off underground and into streams, lakes, and aquifers also get contaminated
by the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. According to Greenpeace, large amounts of water
are being used to drill for natural gas in areas where the water supply is scarce. “In Western
States like Texas and Colorado, over 3.6 million gallons are needed per fracture. In 2010, the
U.S. EPA estimated that 70 to 140 billion gallons of water were used to fracture just 35,000
wells in the United States” (www.greenpeace.org). Already experiencing severe drought
conditions, farmers in Texas are worried about their businesses’ future and the consequences that
could potentially unfold. “Because of the cost to truck water in from further away, companies
prefer to use water from sources as close to the well as possible, which can result in significant
