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Fracking by the Numbers

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Fracking by the Numbers Fracking by the Numbers The Damage to Our Water, Land and Climate from a Decade of Dirty Drilling Fracking by the Numbers The Damage to Our Water, Land and Climate from a Decade of Dirty Drilling Written by: Elizabeth Ridlington and Kim Norman Frontier Group Rachel Richardson Environment America Research & Policy Center April 2016 Acknowledgments Environment America Research & Policy Center sincerely thanks Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Land & Wildlife Program, Natural Resources Defense Council; Courtney Bernhardt, Senior Research Analyst, Environmental Integrity Project; and Professor Anthony Ingraffea of Cornell University for their review of drafts of this document, as well as their insights and suggestions. Frontier Group interns Dana Bradley and Danielle Elefritz provided valuable research assistance. Our appreciation goes to Jeff Inglis for data assistance. Thanks also to Tony Dutzik and Gideon Weissman of Frontier Group for editorial help. We also are grateful to the many state agency staff who answered our numerous questions and requests for data. Many of them are listed by name in the methodology. The authors bear responsibility for any factual errors. The recommendations are those of Environment America Research & Policy Center. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of our funders or those who provided review. 2016 Environment America Research & Policy Center. Some Rights Reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 Unported License. To view the terms of this license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0. Environment America Research & Policy Center is a 501(c)(3) organization. We are dedicated to protecting our air, water and open spaces. We investigate problems, craft solutions, educate the public and decision-makers, and help the public make their voices heard in local, state and national debates over the quality of our environment and our lives. For more information about Environment America Research & Policy Center or for additional copies of this report, please visit www. environmentamericacenter.org. Frontier Group provides information and ideas to help citizens build a cleaner, healthier, fairer and more democratic America. We address issues that will define our nation’s course in the 21st century—from fracking to solar energy, global warming to transportation, clean water to clean elections. Our experts and writers deliver timely research and analysis that is accessible to the public, applying insights gleaned from a variety of disciplines to arrive at new ideas for solving pressing problems. For more information about Frontier Group, please visit www.frontiergroup.org. Layout: Harriet Eckstein Graphic Design Cover: Fracking-related activity has turned this well pad in western Pennsylvania into an industrial site. Doug Duncan/USGS Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................. 4 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 8 Fracking Poses Grave Threats to the Environment and Public Health .................9 Contaminating Drinking Water ....................................................................9 Consuming Scarce Water Resources .........................................................13 Endangering Public Health with Air Pollution ...........................................13 Exacerbating Global Warming ...................................................................14 Damaging America’s Natural Heritage ......................................................15 Imposing Costs on Communities ...............................................................17 Tallying the State and National Impacts of Fracking ..........................................21 Wells Fracked by State ..............................................................................21 Wastewater Produced ...............................................................................22 Chemicals Used .........................................................................................22 Water Used ............................................................................................... 24 Methane Pollution Released .....................................................................25 Acres of Land Damaged ............................................................................25 Recommendations ............................................................................................ 27 Appendix A. Total Impacts of Fracking ..............................................................29 Appendix B. FracFocus Water Use, by State ......................................................30 Appendix C. FracFocus Chemical Use, by State .................................................31 Methodology ..................................................................................................... 32 Counting the Number of Wells in Each State ............................................32 Methane Emissions ...................................................................................38 Land Disturbed .......................................................................................... 38 Water and Chemical Use ...........................................................................40 Notes ................................................................................................................. 44 Executive Summary he combination of two technologies— • 5 billion pounds of hydrochloric acid, a caustic hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drill- acid (p. 22-24); Ting—has enabled the oil and gas industry to engage in an effort to unlock oil and gas in under- • 1.2 billion pounds of petroleum distillates, ground rock formations across the United States. which can irritate the throat, lungs and eyes; “Fracking,” however, has also led to tremendous cause dizziness and nausea; and can include environmental harm and put the health and safety toxic and cancer-causing agents; and of communities across the country at risk. • 445 million pounds of methanol, which is Since 2005, according to industry and state data, suspected of causing birth defects. more than 137,000 fracking wells have been drilled or permitted in more than 20 states, but • The exact identities of many other chemicals the scale of fracking’s impact on our environment are unknown because they are kept secret as can be difficult to grasp. This report quantifies proprietary information. some of the key environmental and public health-related impacts triggered by fracking People living or working nearby can be exposed to during the technology’s decade-long spread these chemicals if they enter drinking water after across the country. To protect the public and our a spill or if they become airborne. environment, states should take action to ban • A recent analysis by researchers at the Yale fracking, or, failing that, to ensure that oil and School of Public Health identified 157 chemi- gas companies are held to the highest level of cals used in fracking that are toxic; the toxicity environmental performance, transparency and of 781 other fracking chemicals examined by accountability. the researchers is unknown (p. 10). Toxic Chemicals and Health • A 2014 study by scientists at Lawrence Fracking uses vast quantities of chemicals known Berkeley National Laboratory reported that to harm human health. According to industry- an estimated 10 percent of chemicals used in reported data in the FracFocus database, oil and fracking fluid are known to be toxic to humans gas wells fracked across the U.S. between 2005 or aquatic life (p. 10). and 2015 used at least: Table ES-1. National Environmental and Public Health-Related Impacts of Fracking Fracking Wells since 2005 At least 137,000 Water Used since 2005 At least 239 billion gallons Toxic Wastewater Produced in 2014, selected states At least 14 billion gallons Land Directly Damaged since 2005 679,000 acres Global Warming Pollution from Well Completions in 2014 (methane) At least 5.3 billion pounds 4 Fracking by the Numbers Wastewater and Drinking Water Supplies Global Warming Fracking threatens drinking water supplies. Across Methane from fracking operations adds global the country, fracking wastewater has leaked from warming pollution to the atmosphere. retention ponds or escaped from faulty disposal wells, putting drinking water at risk. Wastewater • Bringing new fracked wells into production in from fracked wells includes not only the toxic 2014 released at least 5.3 billion pounds of chemicals injected into the well but also naturally methane. That’s equivalent to annual global occurring radioactive materials that can be warming emissions from 22 coal-fired power brought to the surface. plants (p. 25). • Fracking wells produced at least 14 billion • Methane, a global warming pollutant 86 times gallons of wastewater in 2014. Wastewater more powerful than carbon dioxide over the production data is not available in some of course of 20 years, is released at multiple the states with the most wells, including Texas steps during fracking, including during and North Dakota, meaning that the total hydraulic fracturing and well completion, amount of fracking wastewater produced in and in the processing and transport of gas to the United States is higher than is estimated end users. here (p. 21-22). Destruction of Natural Landscapes
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