Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Fracking: Not Just A Made-Up Curse Word on Battlestar Galactica

Fracking (or hydraulic fracturing) is the use of more than a million gallons of water, pumped underground, to fracture underground rock formations and release natural gas.  There's a lot of fracking going on in the Barnet Shale area around Fort Worth and it's causing some big problems.  We're not entirely sure what's in the water being used as it is apparently a "trade secret" but we know that, after being used to frack, it can never be potable again.  It cannot even be used for future fracking jobs and that is a big problem because we are talking about a lot of water.  

And Texas kind of needs water.  

Plus there's the matter of fracking being linked to contaminated drinking water and earthquakes.  And there are eminent domain issues.  Seems a little scary.  A blogger going by the handle txsharon seems to be leading the charge in getting the word out on this issue and Jeff Weems, the Democratic candidate for Texas Railroad Commissioner (a position that deals with oil and gas, not railroads) has some concerns about how it is being regulated.  We need to keep our eyes on this.