NY State Hides Report Concluding Fracking Safe

[Wehrwolfen]

NY State Hides Report Concluding Fracking Safe​

by John Sexton
3 Jan 2013

A leaked New York state analysis says fracking is safe technology which will not cause dangerous water contamination.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has been studying the issue of fracking in NY state for four years now. His administration seemed poised to finally approve some use of the drilling technique last year, but at the last moment he caved to pressure from environmental groups and restarted the regulatory process.

The New York Times reported Thursday that a leaked report produced by the state concluded nearly a year ago that fracking is safe technology. While the Times does not appear to have published the 8-page analysis, it offers quotes which sound conclusive on the issue: "By implementing the proposed mitigation measures the Department expects that human chemical exposures during normal HVHF [fracking] operations will be prevented or reduced below levels of significant health concern."

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NY State Hides Report Concluding Fracking Safe

 

[tjvh]

Hell Fracking Yeah!

 

[waltky]

Granny says one o' these days dat frackin' gonna hit a earthquake fault an' split the world in two...

Fracking 'not significant' cause of large earthquakes
9 April 2013 - New research suggests that fracking is not a significant cause of earthquakes that can be felt on the surface.

UK scientists looked at quakes caused by human activity ranging from mining to oil drilling; only three could be attributed to hydraulic fracturing. Most fracking events released the same amount of energy as jumping off a ladder, the Durham-based team said. They argue that the integrity of well bores drilled for fracking is of much greater concern. The research is published in the Journal of Marine and Petroleum Geology. In recent years, hydraulic fracturing has become a significant means of recovering oil and gas that is too tightly bound into rock formations to be recovered by normal drilling. Fracking, as it is called, utilises a mixture of water, sand and chemicals pumped underground at high pressure to crack open sedimentary rocks and release the fuels within.

Earth movers

But opponents of fracking have long been concerned that the process could induce earthquakes such as the one that occurred near a shale gas operation in Lancashire in 2011. Now researchers from Durham University's Energy Institute say that the pumping of fracking liquid does indeed have the potential to reactivate dormant fault lines. But they say that compared to many other human activities such as mining or filling reservoirs with water, fracking is not a significant source of tremors that can be felt on the surface. "We've looked at 198 published examples of induced seismicity since 1929," Prof Richard Davies from Durham told BBC News. "Hydraulic fracturing is not really in the premier league for causing felt seismicity. Fundamentally it is is never going to be as important as mining or filling dams which involve far greater volumes of fluid."

The researchers detailed just three incidences of earthquakes created by fracking - one each in the US, the UK and Canada. The biggest at Horn River Basin in Canada in 2011 had a magnitude of 3.8. "Most fracking related events release a negligible amount of energy roughly equivalent to, or even less than someone jumping off a ladder onto the floor," said Prof Davies.

What has been shown to cause bigger seismic activity is the underground injection of oil-drilling waste water. Recent research in the US has linked this to a 5.7 magnitude earthquake in Oklahoma in 2011. This isn't an issue in the UK as the practice of injecting waste water underground is banned by EU legislation. If oil and gas exploration companies want to reduce the risk from fracking completely, the key thing according to Prof Davies is not to drill too close to tectonic faults. By using 3D seismic imaging he says, these problem could be identified and the risk of quakes avoided. However this technology is not a legal requirement at present and is likely to be resisted as it will increase drilling costs.

Cement issues