By: Henry Fountain
Published: New York Edition (December 12, 2011)
Rust Belt City in Youngstown, Ohio has not experienced an earthquake since the 18th century. The city has a title of seismically inactive area. The Ohioans have experienced 9 quakes in the past 8 months. Seismologists have came to a conclusion that the epicenter of these quakes happens to be a 9,000 feet well in the industrial lot of the Mahoning River.At the well, a local company has been disposing of brine and other liquids from natural gas wells across the border in Pennsylvania in a process known as hydraulic fracturing. The process takes out gas from shale rock. "Fracking" is a developing process that is being disputed by many environmentalists for the fact that it is responsible for air and water pollution in the area. Scientists and government officials are not convinced that fracking is the only trigger for the incline in earthquakes but the opinion varies. Not much action has been taken place but a potential link caused Arkansas to shutdown a disposal well and create a 1,100 square mile boundary around the area of where disposal wells are forbidden.
Fracking is not a quite a global topic at the mean time and with new problems occurring, fracking might be a failed attempt at a better and healthier solution for obtaining fossil fuels. Government officials have been searching for a transition into a healthier solution of obtaining fossil fuels but also keep in mind financial deficit. As we learned from evidence of others in the documentary about fracking we are currently watching in class, fracking is not the alternative most Americans are looking for. Personally I do not have an opinion on the topic because I do not know all the facts, but I do think that fracking will not become the US's scape code to global concerns amongst the go-green effort.
Is fracking ultimately a healthier solution to obtaining fossil fuels?
Does fracking have a predominant future?
What are PA's specific laws in dealing with fracking?
I knew about fracking and how bad it was already for the water and the air and practically the whole environment but i didnt know it also caused earthquakes. this is another reason i find fracking horrible. Obviously fracking is not good for the US because it has caused so much damage to not only the people and things who are effected by it but also it damages our environments. I honestly hate fracking after ive heard all of these horrors of it. I found an article on the same topic http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-14/fracking-has-formerly-stable-ohio-city-aquiver-over-earthquakes.html
ReplyDelete- Is fracking the only thing that caused the quakes?
- How bad were the quakes?
- Did the quakes damage anything?
I think that fracking is pretty bad even though getting the natural gas will help us with the lack of oil we will have in the near future. I didn’t know that it could cause earthquakes but it does make sense, since fracking is breaking up the rocks. I hope that no earthquakes happen around here and potentially destroy our homes.
ReplyDelete-Could earthquakes happen in Pennsylvania?
-Is it time to stop fracking?
-Are there any improvements to fracking to help make it less harmful?
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ReplyDeleteWe learned in class how fracking can really destroy a community and their water supply. People that live by fracking sights can light there water on fire. I knew that fracking was bad for the environment but I never knew that earthquakes were a possible outcome of fracking. In my opinion fracking should be stopped and we should get the natural gas by a different method. Although it does supply many jobs and brings us natural gas to use fracking is too dangerous to keep doing.
ReplyDelete- Will we ever find a different way to get natural gas?
- Can fracking be altered so that it would be less dangerous?
- Will the earthquakes become more extreme if fracking continues?