The side effects of fracking
Posted by Neil Smith | Emerging Risk on Monday 06 June 2011, 2:53PM Share
You may recently have read reports in the news about an earthquake near Blackpool in Lancashire.
While only being 1.5 in magnitude and not causing any structural damage, what it did do was throw light on a controversial method of gas extraction known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”.
Fracking involves injecting millions of gallons of water mixed with rock-dissolving chemicals, into shale rock to unlock the natural gas inside.
Drilling for shale gas is huge business in the US and seen as vitally important in securing future energy sources with oil supplies coming under increasing pressure. But shale gas drilling isn't restricted to the US – it is becoming increasingly common in Europe, in countries such as Poland and Germany, and most recently in the UK.
While small earthquakes are a worrying side-effect of shale gas drilling – and sufficiently so for Cuadrilla Resources to suspend its current shale operations in Lancashire - they are relatively common. What is of much greater concern to many is the environmental impact of fracking and, in particular, the potential contamination of water supplies.
Some environmentalists and community groups, particularly in the US, say the fluids used to break-up shale deposits are polluting water supplies and releasing harmful substances into the drinking water of people living near gas wells. The drilling companies counter that fracking happens too far below the water table for this to be possible.
Currently the UK Government does not seem overly worried about drilling for shale gas with the Energy and Climate Change Committee finding no evidence that the technique of fracking is unsafe. Such an approach is directly at odds with Government views in France and the US states of New York and Pennsylvania, where fracking is banned.
It'll be interesting to see if the recent seismic activity in North West England will be enough to trigger a UK Government review of its current approach to shale gas drilling.
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