New study finds: Found levels of arsenic in areas with fracking that were almost 18 times higher than in areas without fracking or in the historical data. What would happen to someone who drank that water? Arsenic is a pretty well-known poison. If you experience a lot of long-term exposure to arsenic, you get a lot of different risks, like skin damage, problems with the circulatory system or even an increased risk of cancer. The levels that we found would not be a lethal dose, but they’re certainly levels that you would not want to be exposed to for any extended period of time. The heavy metals are a little bit different because they are known to be included in some fracking recipes. We think the problem is that they’re becoming concentrated at levels that aren’t normal as a result of some aspect of natural gas extraction. If fracking fluids are getting out, along with many other steps that are involved, from drilling the hole to getting the water back out that is where you find the problems. A lot of these can actually cause different scenarios whereby the naturally occurring heavy metals will become concentrated in ways they normally wouldn’t. For example, if you have a private water well that’s not kept up well, you’ll have a scale of rust on the inside. And if someone were to do a lot of drilling nearby, you may find some pressure waves or vibrations that would cause those rust particles to flake out into the water. Arsenic is bound up inside that rust, and that can actually mobilize arsenic that would never be in the water otherwise. Methanol and ethanol are substances that should not be very easy to find in the groundwater naturally. We definitely know that those are on the list of things that are known to be in hydraulic fracturing fluid. But the oil and gas industry continues to deny everything and everyone that does not agree with them that fracking is safe!!
Posted on: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 16:27:03 +0000
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