"have not contaminated any water supply and with that much distance to an aquifer, it is very unlikely they could.” (August 30, 2011)
Activists often claim that fracturing exacerbates the risk of earthquakes. Also not true. According to a new study from the National Academy of Sciences:
“The process of fracturing a well as presently implemented for shale gas recovery does not pose a high risk for inducing felt seismic events.”
Clearly, this topic is of special concern here in Southern California and I wish I had more time to address it. You can find important source material at energyindepth.org.
When groups like the Sierra Club claim that fracturing fluid poses a danger to drinking water supplies, it is in a calculated effort to frighten, not inform, the public. What they don’t tell you is that fracturing fluid is comprised on average of 99.51% water and sand. After water and sand, other additives perform important safety functions, such as preventing corrosion in the well, so that oil, gas and fracturing fluid remain completely isolated from groundwater.
But regardless of the ingredients, it’s important to remember that any fracturing fluid that remains deep underground is going to stay there, trapped by the same geological forces that have kept the oil and gas in place for millions and millions of years.
The Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources is now in the process of holding hearings and collecting testimony about hydraulic fracturing all around California. We believe that it’s important to let the experts do their jobs – gathering the best peer-reviewed science available, and then proceeding based on the facts as they actually exist, rather than on misconceptions and falsehoods that people find while watching HBO or clicking around on the Internet.
Thanks very much for your time.”"
"Fracking Hazards Obscured in Failure to Disclose Wells
By Benjamin Haas, Jim Polson, Phil Kuntz and Ben Elgin - 2012-08-14T04:01:00Z
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-14/fracking-hazards-obscured-in-failure-to-disclose-wells.html
Seeking to quell environmental concerns about the chemicals it shoots underground to extract oil and natural gas, Apache Corp. (APA) told shareholders in April that it disclosed information about “all the company’s U.S. hydraulic fracturing jobs” on a website last year.
Actually, Apache’s transparency was shot through with cracks. In Texas and Oklahoma, the company reported chemicals it used on only about half its fracked wells via FracFocus.org, a voluntary website that oil and gas companies helped design amid calls for mandatory disclosure.
Energy companies failed to list more than two out of every five fracked wells in eight U.S. states from April 11, 2011, when FracFocus began operating, through the end of last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The gaps reveal shortcomings in the voluntary approach to transparency on the site, which has received funding from oil and gas trade groups and $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy.
“FracFocus is just a fig leaf for the industry to be able to say they’re doing something in terms of disclosure,” said U.S. Representative Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat. DeGette, along with Pennsylvania Senator Robert Casey, introduced legislation in March 2011 that would require companies to disclose fracking chemicals. The bills haven’t advanced in either the House or Senate.
With FracFocus, “companies that want to disclose can do it but the other ones don’t have to,” DeGette said. (cont’d)"