So, oil fracking is actually pretty damn terrible

babylonian

babylonian

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Following up on that thread discussing the economic aspects of the oil war going right now, it turns out that shale gas and oil fracking method of extraction is pretty fucking bad for people living around the area of drilling.

Reports of numerous leaks and poor waste management are pretty shitty flaws of this new tech.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko27wj1Q-BQ"]Mining the Largest Shale Gas Reserve in the Northern Hemisphere: What the Frack? - YouTube[/ame]

TL;DR
Bad for environment, bunch of dangerous health hazards, leaks and waste spills. Gov not giving shit, private companies larger than life.
 


I have spoken to a lot of people near Blackpool about fracking, which is the town in the film. Most are clueless middle class idealists. Shocking, right?
 
mattseh said:
I have spoken to a lot of people near Blackpool about fracking, which is the town in the film. Most are clueless middle class idealists. Shocking, right?
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So the fact that it has just been banned in the whole of New York state, must just be coincidence? They might be middle class idealists, but that doesn't mean they are clueless. Fracking might work fine in America, the UK is a much smaller area so any problems that arose would affect many more people. So what if you get cheap oil for a couple years, it'd be better to keep those reserves and work on more efficient energy usage.
 
The Simpsons had a full episode on this topic. That is how I even ever heard about it. Googled it a bit and I saw that having water burn when running from your pipe is actually possible..
 
Fierce said:
So the fact that it has just been banned in the whole of New York state, must just be coincidence? They might be middle class idealists, but that doesn't mean they are clueless. Fracking might work fine in America, the UK is a much smaller area so any problems that arose would affect many more people. So what if you get cheap oil for a couple years, it'd be better to keep those reserves and work on more efficient energy usage.
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Most people just assume things are bad, because emotion or what someone told them. This includes politicians. Any sort of resource extraction is going to have risks, but the vast majority of people who are anti-fracking haven't done any sort of real research, they just huff and puff and demand that something be done by their masters.
 
Ever see gasland? Fairly scary shit. Not only does fracking use tons of freshwater, it winds up polluting our fresh water supplies, and well we kind of need that stuff.
 
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEB_Wwe-uBM[/ame]


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kj35AT_ONM"]The Shale Gas Boom Transforming Global Energy Markets - YouTube[/ame]
 
babylonian said:
...it turns out that shale gas and oil fracking method of extraction is pretty fucking bad for people living around the area of drilling.

Reports of numerous leaks and poor waste management are pretty shitty flaws of this new tech.
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The tech isn't new. It was invented in 1947, with several variations on the theme since the 1800s. Hydraulic fracturing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How bad has been debated for a long time as well. This was an award winning site for good use of parallax scrolling and HTML5/CSS3 and whatnot a couple years back... Dangers of Fracking

There's no shortage of articles in mainstream media outlining the dangers of fracking, and also those that dispute those dangers. Some say there have been thousands of instances of contamination of groundwater, while others say no such contamination has ever happened. The fact of the matter is that there have been millions of frackings, one million in the US as of 2012 says Wiki, and whether it's dangerous or not is kind of irrelevant at this point. The damage, if it exits, is already done and will continue because big gas and oil will always win out over the well being of individuals.
 
The act of fracking will have NO Effect on ground water. The problems with fracking arise from improper construction of the well, cap, and the use and disposal of the water and other fluids use to fracture the rocks. Here is a nice image that will show you the proportions. I live in PA and I have my own water well for the house, it is considered a deep well and it is only 250 feet deep.

Well construction has improved dramatically, as has waste water treatment. Banning it is moronic and reactionary. Regulation and innovation are what is needed, to monitor the waste water treatment and disposal, and the well construction.
1-92dc3bf3e1.jpg
 
The Deepwater Horizon was also using modern technology that was "safe." When companies cut corners and a disaster occurs, what happens? The EPA gives them a slap on the wrist?
 
Doc said:
The act of fracking will have NO Effect on ground water. The problems with fracking arise from improper construction of the well, cap, and the use and disposal of the water and other fluids use to fracture the rocks. Here is a nice image that will show you the proportions. I live in PA and I have my own water well for the house, it is considered a deep well and it is only 250 feet deep.

Well construction has improved dramatically, as has waste water treatment. Banning it is moronic and reactionary. Regulation and innovation are what is needed, to monitor the waste water treatment and disposal, and the well
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More like taxation and regulation, in the case of Pennsylvania. Some of the fracking operations in NEPA resemble Venezualan clear-cutting operations.

The long-term impact of fucking up our aquifers are far too severe for the regulations and associated penalties to not be "over the top", proverbially speaking. Then again, this is the oil and gas industry we are talking about - so who knows if this will actually occur.
 
Eldarion said:
Ever see gasland? Fairly scary shit. Not only does fracking use tons of freshwater, it winds up polluting our fresh water supplies, and well we kind of need that stuff.
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You mean the movie where they hooked up propane tanks to people's water systems so they could claim the water could be set on fire?

The gasland where the director was sued for fraud over his claims and lost in court?

That gasland?

vgeek said:
The Deepwater Horizon was also using modern technology that was "safe." When companies cut corners and a disaster occurs, what happens? The EPA gives them a slap on the wrist?
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Deepwater Horizon's protocols worked just fine. That was till the US coast guard decied that they would intervene by pouring water onto the gas fire which then turned into hydrogen gas, causing an explosion that blew the well casings apart. Had the BP protocols of been followed there would have been virtually no oil that would have contaiminated the ocean.
 
schockergd said:
Deepwater Horizon's protocols worked just fine. That was till the US coast guard decied that they would intervene by pouring water onto the gas fire which then turned into hydrogen gas, causing an explosion that blew the well casings apart. Had the BP protocols of been followed there would have been virtually no oil that would have contaiminated the ocean.
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I don't think this is accurate. A violent methane gas explosion in the riser is what caused the fire in the first place. The Coast Guard played no part in the fire fighting efforts, which were handled by a half a dozen private boats. They provided no supervision or advice. The only question seems to be whether or not spraying the rig with as much water as they did caused it to sink or not.

Haphazard firefighting might have sunk BP oil rig | Center for Public Integrity

The well head emergency shut off valves failed to activate. That combined with the fact that the drilling pipe may have been damaged by the initial explosion, and destroyed by the sinking of the rig is what caused the spill. It's possible that if the rig didn't sink, then there wouldn't have been as bad a spill if the riser wasn't damaged too badly.
 
Antics said:
The long-term impact of fucking up our aquifers are far too severe for the regulations and associated penalties to not be "over the top", proverbially speaking. Then again, this is the oil and gas industry we are talking about - so who knows if this will actually occur.
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The point of posting the image is to visually show you how far the actual fracturing of rock and the location of the oil/gas is from the aquifer. Fracking is not this issue, it is what happens with waist water when it leaves the pipe. Treatment of this waste water has evolved dramatically but still needs progress.
 
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