Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumAt Least 10 Percent Of Fracking Fluid Is Toxic
At least 10 percent of the contents of fracking fluid injected into the earth is toxic. For another third we have no idea. And thats only from the list of chemicals the fracking industry provided voluntarily. Thats according to an analysis by William Stringfellow of Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, reported in Chemistry World.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the practice of injecting fluid at high pressure into the earth, which breaks up oil- and gas-filled rock formations that is then extracted to the surface. The contents and makeup of that fluid have been a subject of controversy, largely because drilling companies are able to keep whats in it a secret, and because the fluid has been known to leak and spill on a regular basis.
Stringfellow mostly used FracFocus voluntary registry of 250 fracking chemicals provided by the industry to check against existing toxicology information. He found that about 10 percent of the chemicals are known to be hazardous in terms of mammalian or aquatic toxicology, Stringfellow said at the a meeting of the American Chemical Society. But for almost a third of those 250 chemicals, theres no publicly available information on their toxicity to humans or other life. And thats not even counting the chemicals that the industry can simply choose to keep a secret.
FracFocus was in the news last week when drilling companies came under scrutiny for injecting diesel fuel into the earth to frack oil and gas, something for which they are supposed to have a permit. When that came to light, many companies simply went back and removed past mentions of injecting diesel.
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http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/At-Least-10-Percent-Of-Fracking-Fluid-Is-Toxic.html
NRaleighLiberal
(60,014 posts)hootinholler
(26,449 posts)Probably didn't spell chromatograph correctly or I might not have the right machine.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)Hard to do legally. And if it is a complex mixture it can be a bear to ID all the components.
caraher
(6,278 posts)Their composition is a "trade secret" and getting a sample and running assays would doubtless be treated as "industrial espionage." Even if the purpose is purely scientific.