Hydrofracking Study Part I- Questions

1. Hydraulic Fracturing is a simulation process used to maximize the extraction of underground resources; this is including oil, natural gas, geothermal energy, and even water.

2. Methane is a chemical compound, the main component of  natural gases, and is classified as the second highest concentration of greenhouse gas emitted from human activity. It is an odorless, colorless and flammable gas that contains harmful effects to the environment.

3. The boiling point of methane is -258.7 degrees Fahrenheit, when that is also equal to -161.5 degrees celsius.

4. Biogenic Methane and Thermogenic are gases that are produced naturally within the environment. Thermogenic Methane is produced 1,000 meters below sea level, and is formed because of high temperatures and increased pressure that comes from being that deep underneath the sea. Biogenic Methane is a gas produced as a direct result of bacterial activity, and is generated several meters below the ocean. Both chemical gases move upward once released into the water, eventually finding their way on to the seabed.

5. A. Three advantages of hydrofracking:
-It is crucial to global economic stability; there has been no reported evidence of groundwater contamination, and the financial gain of this boom of interest in natural gas has increased rapidly in the past few years. Example: In 2008, the wellhead price of natural gas went down from $8 per thousand cubic feet to $3.67 per thousand cubic feet. This keeps prices low for Americans and ensures that we will not run out of adequate resources.

-It is safer for the environment than most of the other ways we can get energy from environmental processes. Contrary to popular belief, the groundwater is not actually all that contaminated, due to the fact that such water surfaces are usually placed uphill, where fracking fluids could not flow to even contaminate. We can also help to limit potential leaks in the system by repairing some of the old pipelines and keeping the power plants and machinery related to hydrofracking clean.

-It can help to prevent the dangers of global warming from becoming even more apparent. Fracking can be vital to global stability until a more renewable energy source is found, and is a breakthrough that can prevent more conventional greenhouse gas methods from being considered at all. Example: Replacing coal with natural gas in power plants reduces greenhouse emissions by up to 50 percent.

5. B. Three disadvantages of hydrofracking:

-The environmental consequences of continuing the process are far too high, and outweigh the financial consequences of not doing the process. When we drill into the surface of the Earth, we spend millions and millions of gallons of water on the process, and there is a huge risk for possibly water contamination if there is a careless setup of drilling procedures. In addition, the global footprint from greenhouse gases consumed while the fracking process is underway is worse than the ecological footprint released from using oil or coal as a fuel source.

-While contamination from water pollution is not possible by fluids alone, methane gas will often seep into nearby wells during the process, which contaminates the supply anyway. In addition, contamination can happen from unrepaired areas, fluid spills, unstable blowouts and other accidents of natural or unnatural causes. All it takes is one thing to slowly lead to something more problematic.

-The chemical used to create fracking fluids contain toxins that could be hazardous or deadly to the general health of a large population of people living around the area that the fracking is taking place. A large part of this concern is that the contents of said chemicals, or even the chemicals themselves, are generally kept hidden from the general public, which leads people to conduct investigations on the kinds of chemicals the drilling companies are expected to use up within their methods of creating fluids for hydrofracking.