Fracking Growth Moves Too Rapidly for Environmental Caution
NEW YORK ( MainStreet) Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a popular method for extracting natural gas, has been increasingly controversial. And the speed of its expansion is now outpacing our understanding of environmental concerns.
First, there was the June 28 explosion and fire at a fracking site in Monroe County, Ohio, which caused thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals to spill into a tributary of the Ohio River, killing over 70,000 fish . Then there was the study released in July that implicated fracking in an increase in seismic activity in Oklahoma. Namely, researchers found that four fracking wells in the Oklahoma City area were accountable for more than 100 earthquakes that reached a magnitude 3 or greater between 2008 and 2013 .
Now, an alarming new report published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment warns that natural gas production methods like fracking have outpaced scientific understanding of the practices long-term environmental and public health impacts .
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