Monday, September 13, 2010

Not So Fast Natural Gas:Why Accelerating Risky Drilling Threatens America's Water

Protect drinking water from natural gas drilling and contamination!

Some energy analysts are predicting that natural gas will be the fuel of the future if advances in drilling technology allow drillers to tap into domestic shale rock formations on a large scale. But because of the impacts that the technology can have on water, natural gas could become our next energy disaster.

Although the industry argues that fracking is safe, there have been numerous documented cases of water contamination near drilling sites.

In order to extract gas from shale, drillers use a method called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” for short. This means injecting millions of gallons of hydraulic fluids—a mix of water, chemicals and sand—into a well to create pressure that cracks open the rocks under the ground, allowing the gas to escape and flow into wells.