Mountaintop Removal Research Paper

Burning and mining coal for fuel is harmful to the environment but because how cheap and easy it is to find many people are unwilling to give it up as a fuel source. One of the problems with coal is that they are limited and are non-renewable so once it has been used we won’t be able to use it again.

The lack of knowledge about the health effects from hydraulic fracking was one of the main reasons that the Maryland legislature originally decided to place a de facto moratorium for the state.

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking, is a widespread practice in the United States. Fracking is a method used to extract oil and natural gas. Scientists and citizens report detrimental side effects of hydraulic drilling. New York and Vermont have banned fracking statewide. Maryland has set a two year moratorium on fracking, so that more research can be done to show the impacts of fracking on the environment. Nationwide, many other cities and counties have banned fracking as well. All states should look into finding alternative sources of energy, instead of using devastating practices like fracking to extract non-renewable resources.

A U.S. Ban on hydraulic fracturing for shale gas production would prohibit the U.S. energy industry from extracting shale gas from geologic structures in the U.S. via fracking. It would also prohibit the recovery and refinement natural gas from wells at hydraulic fracking production sites within the U.S.

The process of fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing, is the act of oil and gas getting blasted with huge amounts of water mixed with many chemicals deep into a gas reservoir. Fracking splits the formations of the rocks to allow the oil and gas extractions. Hydraulic fracturing was first used in Kansas 1947 (Fracturing in Cali) Since then, fracking had became a regular practice to getting rid of unrecoverable reserves, or to stimulate production from oil wells in the United States of America. Workers have been using this process for over 30 years with no reports of the outrageous outcomes. Fracking in California has been done throughout the state. For example, Glenn, Los Angeles, Monterey, Sacramento, Kern, and Sutter. Many fracking companies have fracked the offshore oils hundreds of times. Fifty to Sixty percent of the new oils were now fracked according to the estimates from Halliburton. This fracking process may have been done elsewhere in California since the state officials didn’t monitor or tracked the history recently. Raising the prices of oil are rising up in exploiting oil in the Monterey Shale using toxic fossil fuel like fracking. The formation under the Los Angeles and the San Joaquin basins hold almost 14 million barrels of oil that can be recovered. If for example, fracking and similar processes are not banned within California, then the state would soon experience extremely dangerous oil spills and booms in California. Although this process may be productive in a way to get rid of the unwanted oils, hydraulic fracturing can contaminate our water, pollute the atmosphere, and affect wildlife.

Two big problems with the fracking process are the federal laws that do not require drilling companies to list the chemicals they use and the lack of management and control over these operations. Although Finkel and Law only briefly explain these two problems, they are not something that should be looked over. Their importance to resolving the fracking problem as a whole is as important as Finkel and Law’s opinion on the research and the temporary suspension of fracking’s contribution to resolving the overall problem. According to the article, drilling companies are not legally required to list any of the chemicals that are used in fracking (Finkel and Law). This is a surprising and problematic issue in terms of assessing the dangers the process can have on the surrounding areas in case of a spill. These chemicals can leak into the groundwater and surface water and can be destructive to the surrounding environment. Knowing these chemicals are “essential to understand better the potential health and environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing” (Finkel and Law). The lack of public awareness of the chemicals that are being used in fracking prohibits immediate preventative action in case of a spill. This is where management and control over these operations should be prioritized. According to the article, there are no states that have adequate regulations on drilling, notably on the disposal of waste water. Drilling

I will begin by describing what hydraulic fracturing is and then explain the problem that arises from it. Hydraulic fracturing is a process use in natural gas wells in the United States, where millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart the rock and release the gas. This process allows producers to recover natural gas and oil. It is a benefit to our economy because it reduces the nations reliance on foreign oil and it also reduces (CO2) emissions from the air quality. The problem with hydraulic fracturing is that the chemicals used in fracturing may pose a threat either underground or when waste fluids are handled and sometimes spilled on the surface. Some of those fluids get into the water wells of people who live near the fracking wells and pollute it, which make it very unsafe to do anything with it even to make contact. Fracking poses a threat on the people and animals that live within the shale’s. This is a big problem because the threat is so serious that the effects could potentially alter a human’s lifespan and possible end it short.

The following recommendations are based on the assumption that the state of Maryland will allow the current ban of hydraulic fracturing to expire and that production of various wells and pits will start soon after this expiration.

Is hydrologic fracturing an acceptable type of energy production? Over the past eighty five years, the yank fossil fuel Institute, API, has been developing and processing engineering standards and practices for the trade. The past decade has caused a replacement apply that involves hydraulic fracturing so as to supply oil and gas in places wherever standard technologies square measure ineffective. Therefore what's Hydraulic Fracturing?

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) is made up of the state governors of Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York, as well as a representative from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The DRBC was attempting to prepare natural gas regulations that will definitely protect the river basin from pollution, and their difficulty spoke volumes about the risks involved in fracking. According to the DRBC website, ?In connection with natural gas drilling, the commission has identified three major areas of concern: 1. Gas drilling projects in the Marcellus Shale or other formations may have a substantial effect on the water resources of the basin by reducing the flow in streams and/or aquifers used to supply the significant amounts of fresh water needed in the natural gas mining process. 2.On-site drilling operations may potentially add, discharge, or cause the release of pollutants into the ground water or surface water. 3.The recovered "frack water" must be treated and disposed of properly.? (?Natural? para. 4). However, as written by Stutz (2015), ?in November 2011, with only two of the four states in the Delaware Basin in support of fracking, the DRBC abruptly withdrew its proposed Four years ago the gas industry was poised to spread into the Delaware River basin. regulations and instituted a moratorium. The fracking industry in the