In recent years, hydraulic shale fracturing, also known as fracking, has stimulated a boom in the American oil and gas drilling industry. Fracking is a well-stimulated technique in which rock is fractured by hydraulically pressurized liquid composed of water, proppants (usually sand) and chemicals. This slurry of fracking fluids and proppant is injected at high pressures into holes bored into the ground to create cracks in the deep-rock formation to allow the gas to flow.
Though this relatively new technology presents new energy resources for the ever growing population of the United states, many people are weary of fracking’s effect on the environment and worried about the impact on the health of surrounding communities.
In December 2014, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo passed the ban on fracking in New York state. Many towns and cities within the state had already independently passed bans on fracking. The city of Dryden ruled it legal for towns to use zoning ordinances to ban fracking but with this state wide ban, fracking projects have to move to neighbouring Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
New York’s ban on hydraulic fracturing practices started in a small upstate town called Dryden, with a population of 14 500. This small town was the target for many gas drilling projects even within town limits. The Dryden Resource Awareness Coalition was established in spring of 2009 by the residents of Dryden were worried about the effects of hydraulic fracturing on the community and neighbourhood. The following year, the DRAC collected signatures to petition for ordinances against the gas drilling projects. These projects require heavy industrial equipment such as heavy drill pads, miles of trucks and noisy equipment into the night. The volatile organic compounds from the fracking sites diminished the town’s air quality by increasing the ozone levels. In September of 2011, Anschutz Exploration Corporation sued the Town of Dryden and tried to force the town to accept industrial gas drilling within town limits. But in February of 2012, the New York Supreme Court ruled in favour of Dryden and proved that courts would rule that localities can retain their ability to regulate land use, which also includes prohibiting industrial activities such as gas development in the communities.
Recently, the New York Department of Health released a report that covers the effects of high volume hydraulic fracturing exposure on humans through contaminants in air or water, naturally occurring radiological materials that result from fracking, and the effects of fracking operations such as traffic, noise and social changes in communities.
The New York Department of Health reports that fracking operations:
- Are impacting people’s respiratory health due to the increased levels of particulate matter, diesel exhaust and volatile organic chemicals;
- Methane and other volatile organic chemicals are released into the atmosphere, affecting climate change;
- Drinking water is impacted from underground migration of methane and fracking chemicals associated with faulty well construction;
- Surface spills potentially resulting in soil and water contamination;
- Recent evidence from studies in Ohio and Oklahoma suggest that high volume hydraulic fracturing can contribute to the induction of earthquakes during fracturing;
- Increased vehicle traffic, road damage, noise, odor complaints;
- Increased demand for housing, medical care, and stress.
The first state to outlaw fracking was Vermont in 2012 and the practice is also banned in Hawaii. Even in Texas, a small town called Denton voted to ban fracking in November of 2014. Many other grassroots movements in Ohio, California, and other cities across America have been working to severely limit hydraulic fracturing in cities and towns. With fracking technology becoming more wide spread and the United States’ growing demand for energy resources, more and more states have been implementing the hydraulic fracturing in order to meet their energy demands. Fracking is a relatively new technology and it is imperative that regulation on its practices and monitoring be increased, and to ensure proper installation of the equipment to reduce adverse environmental impact as much as possible.
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