Hydraulic Fracturing AKA Fracking

Fracking’s Wastewater

Article: A New Study Clarifies Treatment Needs for Water from Fracked Gas and Oil Wells http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/08/a-new-study-clarifies-treatment-needs-for-water-from-fracked-gas-and-oil-wells/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

By:  Andrew C. Revkin

Date: September 8, 2014 

Hydraulic fracturing is a process of well-stimulation by fracturing a rock using hydraulically pressured liquid. It involves putting slurry water, chemicals and sand down a well to open bedrock and extract oil and gas. A study at Rice university in Houston shows that although fracking water should not be near drinking water, it is actually less toxic than waste from coal-bed methane mining. Benzene and other cancer causing chemicals that are associated with coal-bed methane mining were not found in fracking water. 

Researchers at Rice found 25 inorganic chemicals in the fracking waste. Barium, Chromium, Copper, Mercury, Arsenic and Antimony are 6 of the 25 chemicals that would make the water harmful to drink. Researchers also found that a common type of waste treatment uses chlorine to remove bacteria from the dirty water. When this water is then put down a well it reacts with geological materials to form halocarbons which can be potentially toxic. The freshwater is used and then treated but then the new freshwater and the dirty treated water is mixed and injected to the next well. If these inorganic compounds are found at higher levels, the halocarbons and organ-bromides, which have been associated with liver damage, could produce a health risk. So far, the observed levels of these inorganic compounds have been minimal and should not be harmful.

A professor of material science at Rice says that because of the halocarbons unpredictable presence, the way wastewater is treated should be reviewed. States such as Texas that is currently in a drought look to continue reusing wastewater than relying on freshwater. A study to determine how the composition of produced water varies within a single shale play was done at many well sites but more samples need to be done in order to confirm the relative levels within a narrow range. 

References: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/08/a-new-study-clarifies-treatment-needs-for-water-from-fracked-gas-and-oil-wells/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140905/frackings-wastewater-poorly-understood-analyzed-first-time
Picture Reference: http://www.premierfoundationrepair.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/fracking-infographic.jpg