Fracking in Colorado
Hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") is not a new approach to locating and exploiting gas and oil in the United States. It has been used as a strategy since 1949, according to Earthworks, an environmental group. Fracking is a strategy oil and gas companies use to retrieve quantities of oil and gas that are trapped in shales, coalbed formations and other underground areas that have previously been drilled. The environmental impacts of fracking can be significant, especially for neighborhoods and communities that are near to the fracking project. In Colorado there are a number of controversies surrounding the process of fracking, and this paper reviews those issues and proposes solutions to those issues.
What is Fracking? How does it Work?
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is presently studying fracking to determine if the current tactics used by oil and gas companies are having negative impacts on water resources in the areas where fracking is being conducted. The EPA has yet to issue guidelines with reference to fracking, although preliminary findings are expected to be published later in 2012. The specific issue the EPA is zeroing in on is water quality in the communities where fracking is taking place. Is the Clean Water Act -- a component of which is called the "Safe Drinking Water Act," which was signed into law in 1972 and prohibits the discharge of "any pollutant from a point source into navigable waters" -- being violated by fracking activities? Moreover, are drinking water wells, aquifers and sub-surface water sources considered "navigable waters" -- or will the EPA adjust its approach to clean, safe water in light of the impacts that fracking has on water sources? Those questions may be answered when the EPA concludes its study and issues recommendations and findings.
But meanwhile, fracking is basically a process in which water mixed with chemicals is injected underground at very high pressures. Fluids...
"A number of these fluids qualify as
hazardous materials and carcinogens, and are toxic enough to contaminate groundwater resources" (Sumi, 2005). In a number of cases around the country, including Alabama, West Virginia, New
Mexico, Wyoming, Montana and Colorado, "…residents have reported changes in water quality or quantity following fracturing operations of gas wells near their homes" (Sumi). Moreover, Sumi (with the "Oil and Gas Accountability Project") mentions some of the complaints from citizens and communities near to fracking activities.
Those complaints include: a) "murky or cloudy water"; b) "black or gray sediments"; c) "iron precipitates" and "black, jelly-like grease"; d) diesel fuel or petroleum odors"; e) "increased methane in water"; f) "rashes from showering"; and g) "gassy taste and decrease or complete loss of water flow" (Sumi).
Colorado and Fracking Issues
Meanwhile, in Longmont, Colorado, citizens have organized against continued fracking in their community. The citizens became involved when fracking of a gas well was occurring within 360 feet of Trail Ridge Middle
School, and for "…at least three years, the ground water around the well was contaminated with carcinogens such as benzene, which was measured at almost 100 times the state limit" (Hooper, 2012). The problem, in addition to the negative environmental impact, is that under Colorado law, a gas or oil fracking operation can be carried out within 350 feet from schools, Hooper explains on page 1). It's against the law to have a liquor store or a marijuana dispensary 1,000 feet from a school, but it is okay, Hooper continues, to drill for "…oil and gas" which could spew "…potentially toxic chemicals into the air…" (1).
The City of Longmont attempted to pass regulations to prevent fracking (or any drilling) within city limits but under threat of a lawsuit by the Attorney General of Colorado, the City Council backed down. But a ballot measure (Ballot Question 300) to prevent fracking in the city will be voted on in November, 2012; it would also prohibit the storage of fracking waste in the city.
Conservationists in Colorado are calling for a 1,000-foot "…buffer that offers presumptive protection from
public health and safety risks" (Berwyn,…
