Monday, November 8, 2010

Hydraulic Fracturing Expert Speaks

DEP personnel find methane bubbling in the Susquehanna River at Sugar Run in Bradford County, PA
Kudos to Wes Skillings and The Wyalusing Rocket-Courier (PA) for printing this article about the problems and dangers of hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania.  I think it is refreshing to see this information in a newspaper in an area that often promotes gas drilling without providing a balance.

Read what Cornell University professor, Dr. Tony Ingraffea, said about hydrofracking at a recent gathering in Browntown, PA.
...the industry claims a success rate of 98.5%, which is essentially at least one accident waiting to happen for about every 150 wells drilled. That is totally unacceptable from an engineering standpoint.
Do people realize what is happening in an area where drilling is occuring? Dr. Ingraffea told his audience that
...there are all kinds of ways for natural gas to migrate into groundwater acquifers. We're dealing with Mother Nature in a way that we can't see what we're doing, smell what we're doing, hear what we're doing, and we can't taste what we're doing, because it's thousands of feet down there...
He also pointed out a very important fact: Hydraulic fracturing in the unconventional gas drilling being done on the Marcellus is a very specific kind of fracking that had never been done in the Commonwealth of PA before 2004. It had never been done anywhere before 1997.

There is lots more easy-to -understand (the kind I like) information in this article.  We all should read it!  Thanks again to the Rocket-Courier and Mr. Skillings!

Read more...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"If gas drilling is allowed to continue, Bradford County and all of Pennsylvania will be forever changed, ruined beyond repair."

That is really an unfair and most likely untrue statement. The jury is still out, and making statements like that are nothing more than fear mongering. Lots of work needs to be done yet, and the apparent largest concern is really what to do with the fracking water and how to treat it. The methane in the Susquehanna is almost certainly not from fracking. Too much emotion in this discussion and not enough common sense - and the professor knows this also.