'Fracking' benefits not worth costs
October 21, 2015
By Richard C. Silvestri , Fort Myers Beach Bulletin, Fort
Myers Beach Observer
High pressure well stimulation is most commonly known as
"Fracking."
This is a process used to extract hydrocarbons of oil and
natural gas from shale layers that are approximately one mile down where the
drill can turn horizontally and continue up to two miles. The process uses an
average of four million gallons of water. A well can be fracked up to eight
times, so on average each well can use 32 million gallons of water, equally
one-foot of water over 100 acres.
The source of Fracking water can be natural springs like
Silver Springs, ponds, lakes, creeks, rivers, streams or the aquifers that are
under all of Florida. To that water is added numerous chemicals which are not
revealed and the fossil fuel industry (FFI) refuses to reveal them.
Chemical analysis is easily obtained but the FFI denies any
purported chemicals come from their operations and since no base-line analysis
has been done, it is hard to prove. Not until recently did the need for this
base-line become evident when illnesses and contaminated wells appeared. We
know that benzene is one chemical for sure and in Florida, with its porous
limestone, hydrofluoric acid is used to dissolve this. Benzene was banned from
gasoline by the American Petroleum Institute (API) in the early 1950s due to
their own research that concluded it was not safe for human contact. It was
used to raise the octane rating of gasoline to eliminate motor
"knock."
The Florida Petroleum Council contends, "Fracking is
harmless." Yet Fracking and, what other names it goes by, uses benzene
within the aquifers. Hydrofluoric Acid is used to etch glass and is so
corrosive to glass it is kept in plastic containers. Glass is silicone dioxide,
the major component of sand, and is in the soil in various silicon compounds
and limestone has many silicon compounds in it.
Once a well is fracked, water, called "flow back,"
returns through the bore hole. However some 80 percent of the water remains
along with the chemicals. The other 20 percent is placed in holding ponds or is
deep-well injected at local sewage plants. Therefore, virtually all of this
chemical
additive of millions of gallons is left in the ground.
In addition to the chemicals, a gritty material called
"propant" is injected. Propants hold the fissures in the shale open
so the hydrocarbons can flow into the bore which is lined with small holes.
These holes are also the method which the pressure from
explosives in the well pipe inject more pressure to fracture and crack the
shale, hence the verb "to Frack" and its lineage of names such as
"Fracking," "Fracked," etc. Addition of these propants creates
local air pollution when they are put into the mix at the surface, and they
linked to silicosis.
Having traveled through Texas and North Dakota and
personally seen the oil wells there and from reports about earthquakes from
fracking in Oklahoma, my personal impression is that today most if not all oil
and natural gas is extracted by the Fracking process. That goes right along
with the scientific consensus that in the USA the "low hanging fruit"
or "peak oil" has been exhausted and Fracking is getting at the last
drops.
While the FFI reports that the USA has a "mother
lode" of natural gas, the global demand will mean we in the USA will have
to compete with that demand which will drive up prices domestically.
Unfortunately and most importantly, Fracking can devastate Florida's beauty,
its agriculture
and its people.
Are the benefits worth the costs?
Richard C. Silvestri is the vice president of Treasure Coast
Progressive Alliance. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from
the University of Miami, is a former hazardous materials instructor and a
retired chief fire officer.
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