$fracking politics definition$

The Marcellus Shale region is particularly attractive to gas drillers because it's a rich supply of natural gas - some call it ' the Saudi Arabia of natural gas' or ' Frackistan' - and because many of the region's rural communities are economically depressed and eager to attract an energy industry that enjoys handsome profits. The areas where fracking is most profitable include the Great Plains from Canada south into Texas, the Great Lakes region and an area known as the Marcellus Shale, which reaches from central New York into Ohio and south to Virginia, according to the U.S. According to a 2014 study, at least 15.3 million Americans have lived within a mile of a fracking well that has been drilled since 2000. And every year, about 13,000 new wells are drilled. But by 2010, that number had almost doubled to 510,000, according to the U.S. In 2000, there were about 276,000 natural gas wells in the United States. Though fracking is used worldwide to extract gas and oil, a fracking boom has occurred recently in the United States, partly driven by concerns over the costs associated with imported oil and other fossil fuels as well as energy security - that is, having uninterrupted access to energy at affordable prices in ways that are preferably impervious to international disruptions, according to the Brookings Institution. 'Flowback water can be treated, but there are large volumes of it and so dealing with it is expensive, and beyond what many small-town water treatment plants can handle.' The fracking boom 'The formation water is usually very salty and can have high levels of radon, a radioactive gas that comes from the decay of uranium in the subsurface,' Marcia Bjornerud, a structural geologist at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, told Live Science. 'Formation water' is the briny water that was in the pore spaces of the rocks. This wastewater is stored on the fracking site in pits, injected into deep underground wells or disposed of off-site at a wastewater treatment facility. The flowback liquid contains water and a number of contaminants, including radioactive material, heavy metals, hydrocarbons and other toxins.

$fracking politics definition$ $fracking politics definition$

Once the underground rock is shattered and proppants are pumped into place, trapped reservoirs of gas and oil are released and pumped back to the surface, along with millions of gallons of 'flowback' liquid, according to the EPA. These proppants are added to prop open the fractures that form under pressure, thereby ensuring that gas and oil can continue to flow freely out of rock fractures even after pumping pressure is released, according to the EPA. In addition to the water and chemical additives, 'proppants' such as sand and ceramic particles are also pumped into the fracking well. These chemical additives usually make up 0.5 to 2 percent of the slickwater, with the remaining 98 to 99.5 percent consisting of plain water, according to a report called 'Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States' by the U.S. Additives can include detergents, salts, acids, alcohols, lubricants and disinfectants. It is mostly water, though it also can contain a wide range of additives and chemicals that serve an engineering purpose. The fluid that is pumped into the well to fracture the rock is called slickwater. The pressure is powerful enough to fracture the surrounding rock, creating fissures and cracks through which oil and gas can flow. After the fracking well is fully drilled and encased, fracking fluid is pumped down into the well at extremely high pressure, in some cases exceeding 9,000 pounds per square inch (62,050 kilopascals), according to a primer from Cornell University's environmental quality engineering course.

Fracking politics definition