Water Fracking History

Zakisha Horton

Environmental History

It take 1-8 million gallons of water to complete each fracturing job. Enough water that can be provided to states like California and Colorado in the west that are experiencing little to no rainfall. Although water fracturing is a way to reduce the use of greenhouse gases. Fracturing is an unsafe process that harms our drinking water and health.

In the United States, drilling and fracking are exempt from the landmark environmental laws, including the Safe Drinking Water Act, thanks to loopholes Congress and regulators. 40,000 gallons of chemical are used per fracturing, it takes four hundred trucks to bring water to each site. During each fracturing 600 chemicals are used in fracturing fluid including

cancerous toxins. All together ,there are six hundred thousand active gas wells in U.S. 8 million gallons of water, plus 18 times a well can be fractured equal it sums up to 72 trillion gallons of water and 360 billions of gallons of chemicals. But we haven't reach the ending results , as the mixture pressure reaches the bottom of the well shale fracturing happens. Creating fissures where natural gases flow into the well.
During this process, nearby groundwater is being contaminated by methane gas and toxic chemicals that leaked out.

Methane concentration is seventeen times higher in drinking water near facturing sites than normal wells. There are cases where the methane levels are too high in drinking water that people can set their tap water on fire. Contaminated well water is then used for drinking waters nearby cities and towns. “There have been over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination next to areas of gas drilling. Also cases of sensory, respiratory and neurological damage due to ingested contaminated water.” It is said that only a small amount of the fracturing fluid is recovered. Leaving the left behind chemicals evaporate and expose harmful chemicals into the atmosphere, creating contaminated air and climate changes due to the acid rain and ground level ozone.

To conclude, hydraulic fracturing pollutes our air and drinking water and hurts communities. Communities with fracking have seen declines in property values,and losses in tourism and agriculture. It worsens climate change due to the chemicals released in the process, and is linked to earthquakes. “ facturing produces approximately 300,000 barrels of natural gases a day”. It is not safe, think about the communities that are already suffering from droughts? Water used on fracturing projects can be used to supply states in the west where there is no fresh water to

drink.
“California’s job is to grow food” indeed, a great deal of food source comes from California. However, they have placed restrictions on the amount of water they can use towards crops. The problem is not with the farmers it is the oil and gas industry how they are exempt. They use 70 million gallons of water a year for hydraulic fracturing. This isn't the nineteenth century where water is found everywhere, they had more regulations on water for the public's sake. Now, regulations aren't helping, they are creating a loophole to help people out for their own personal gain.
A dream of water explains about the water that use to be in the west. The west began with the ideas of “Frederick Jackson Turner derived from that report his argument that an abundance of free land had made the West the source of American individualism and self-reliance.” individualism and self reliance from the british crown they were able to break free with the freedom of the west. According to Worster, the “free land was never the only essential. Water had to be provided to, and provided cheaply”. Free land and cheap water help developed the west. However, with the rapid development of the west , it has lost its cheap water supply. Water was an easy resource to settlers who farmed the land in the 1920’s. “Just as homesteaders settled first the land easiest to reach and plow, so reclamationists diverted the rivers easiest to dam and draw off to their fields.” Due to the overuse of water, it forced the government to take control and regulate the water usage. With that brought, the hoover dam, the Colorado, the Columbia, the Snake, the Missouri rivers.”By the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Reclamation Act, almost every major river in the region had been dammed many times over, some 45 million acres were being irrigated in the west.” Alone nine out of the ten counties in the country were all in California. California a drought stricken state now, once was a source of water supply. For a state to once be a water source is probably why today, California is experiencing so many droughts. Although they were able to create more waterways,”He saw people exploiting that abundance in a direct, personal way, using their own skills and labor.” Furthermore, “men saw individualism and entrepreneurial ambition, in the west.” but the old west became replaced with the new , the individualism has disappeared and men came more reliant on technology. Farming equipment that broke the plane.
The plow that broke the plain, was made to make aware of the dust bowl situations that were occurring in the west. To aid farmers who were suffering and lost everything due to the drought. The Civil War had its effects on the great plains, excessive use of the soil , the overgrazing etc. Also the use of new technology, had much to do with the feeding of the soldiers during the Civil War. As the drought stroke the midwest, dry land farming became popular and wheat was the front runner crop. Dry land farming the land had to be plowed very deeply so when it did rain the soil can capture the moisture more easily. Planting many millions of acres of wheat throughout the great plains, gradually took its toll on the land. The land became dust environmental damage began to occur. Centuries later we are still paying for it, areas in the west still have little to no rainfall making it hard for agriculture.
The water percentage in the Colorado river is shrinking.

California's population is increasing, according to the article on the Colorado River “California's population is growing six million to estimated 19 million people in the next 45 years” some counties will have to sacrifice a portion of their water supplies and others not. California for example will not sacrifice any of its water. In fact, it will continue to receive its full portion. As painful as it sound, it gets worst, if the Colorado river continues to fall, Arizona will lose half of its water supply while California won't lose a drop. California has an interest in keeping their full share of water while others will suffer. Regulators know there is a water shortage, but yet they still allow fracking to happen.“99 percent of the state’s fracking sites are in the valley, which is also home to the bulk of the state’s agriculture”. With regulations put in place it will never make fracking safe. They are taking away water from other states like Nevada and Arizona so they have enough water to supply farmers , fracturing sites and communities. Whereas if they gave up fracting altogether states like Arizona, Colorado and Nevada won't have to find alternative water ways for

agriculture.
Providing water to our communities so they have fresh water to drink , to farmers so we have food to eat is the right thing to do. Because both water and food is essential to the human body. But allowing hydraulic fracturing to continue its doing more harm than good it is contaminating our air, food and water. Regulations can never make fracking safe. That's why organizations such as FRAC Act are coming together to fight against the use of hydraulic fracturing. Many people across the states are uniting to fight corporations that are contaminating our food and water. The Food and Water Watch have supported the movement by conducting researches to help in the fight to ban fracking.