1. Water Quantity
2. Water Quality
- Rapid removal of enormous quantities of water places severe stress on local aquatic systems. Removal of water for fracking lowers water levels that leave water bodies more susceptible to pollution due to lower diluting capabilities. Additionally, some streams near fracking sites may temporarily run dry, devastating local aquatic life.
- Even in water-rich states, such as Pennsylvania, water supplies may be threatened by removal for fracking. Recently, Pennsylvania suspended thirteen previously-approved water-use permits in the Susquehanna River Basin due to low stream flows caused by excessive water withdrawal.
- Depending on the surrounding bedrock and the depth of the well, only 15-80% of the water used is recoverable, the rest of which remains below ground, often thousands of feet below the level of drillable water wells and tapped aquifers
2. Water Quality
- Water that normally returns to the surface is collected in temporary pools and collected before treatment to remove the surfactants and other added chemicals. Water not collected in these pools – the 20-85% of water not recovered – is not treated, and the added chemicals have the potential to mix in with subsurface groundwater that may be tapped by water wells for human consumption.
- While it is true that methane is capable of diffusing into aquifers and other sources of drinking water naturally, but it has been shown that sources of drinking water in gas-bearing deposits are more likely to be affected when located nearer to active fracking sites
- Precisely which chemicals are being used in the fracking process is protected as a trade-secret by natural gas companies, and backed up in court. The courts have granted these compounds special protection as industry and trade secrets, thus exempting them from further regulation. The most famous related instance of this, with regards to fracking, is the so-called “Halliburton Loophole,” named for the company it was first applied to. Congress passed the Energy Policy Act (2005) which gave exemptions to fracking wastewater, containing the unknown slurry of chemicals, so that it was no longer regulated by the EPA. Thus the chemicals used by Halliburton and other energy companies are exempted from EPA monitoring in compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act. This loophole makes it cheaper for energy companies to ignore the impacts of their fracking fluid wastewater, but it also means that there are fewer studies and limited monitoring on the presence of wastewater in local drinking water. Therefore, the exact compositions of fracking fluid can be kept secret from the public and the potential effects of human exposure cannot be fully examined.
- It is known that many of the chemicals confirmed to be in fracking fluid are extremely harmful to humans. One of the most common confirmed additives in fracking fluid is benzene, which in addition to aiding in the flow of water and sand into subsurface rock crevices, is also a powerful carcinogen linked to multiple types of cancer in people, particularly leukemia. Unfortunately, residential plants are not equipped to treat the chemicals contained in fracking fluid. Considering that the number of leaking wells within the U.S. may be as high as 10,000, this poses a serious threat to human health.