MARCELLUS SHALE FRACKING CONTROVERSY
(click on any thumbnail for video clip) Hydraulic fracturing is a drilling process that blasts large amounts of water deep into the earth to fracture dense shale and allow natural gas to escape. The water is mixed with sand and chemicals, some of them being toxic or potentially carcinogenic. Some of the fracking liquid gushes back to the surface, often with natural underground brine, in a brew that is intensely salty and often contains barium, strontium and sometimes radium from the earth. Bob has been looking for answers as to whether the process might be dangerous to human or wildlife and what effect it might have on his water supply. The company insists that the practice is safe. DEP records indicate that water utilities have struggled with unacceptable levels of trihalomethanes and carcinogens which are linked to drilling waste. Bob draws his water from a hand pump nearby the drilling site and has no public utilities. The company has no answers to his concerns. |
