This article isn't anything more than a collection of NIMBY quotes and emotive pictures. It doesn't really have any substance.
There are fair criticisms of hydraulic fracturing, but I've found that most content outside of scientific journals / EPA reports to be incredibly overblown and very inaccurate.
Two days ago I watched "Promised Land" which deals with this issue, but I thought it was just hyperbole when they were talking about dying animals and people setting water on fire.
Whats happened to good regulatory frameworks in America?
Was the breakdown of industry regulation a Bush thing or does it pre-date that?
Seems to be a similar theme across Health, Food, Petroleum.
Industries are always working to capture their regulators regardless of administrations. The massive push for deregulation since Reagan has certainly helped destroy it though.
The other side of the problem is the explosion in global energy demand (and hence prices).
Wait a damn minute here. The EPA came down and even tested the damn waters (*wells) in these areas. Methane had been coming out of the ground before these people were born and now they are saying something? Are these the very people that don't own the land that fracking is leased on?
Perhaps you should give these people the benefit of the doubt before attacking them? "Methane existed before" is very simplistic. Has the amount increased? Has the affected area increased? Is there a change in prevalent isotopes that might give a clue as to the origin of the methane? Is the change enough to put the level over EPA standards?
There isn't really any question that some people have seen an increase in methane in their water supply (unless you believe these people have been living without usable water for decades but only cared to do anything about it once fracking came to town). Working out why is more difficult.
Our results show evidence for methane contamination of shallow drinking-water systems in at least three areas of the region and suggest important environmental risks accompanying shale-gas exploration worldwide.
I was a fluid pump operator for a coiled tubing company and we went in and cleaned up after fracking. First hand saw the chemicals. each little spot too.
There are fair criticisms of hydraulic fracturing, but I've found that most content outside of scientific journals / EPA reports to be incredibly overblown and very inaccurate.