Marcellus Shale: Drilling for Natural Gas and Our Water Supply

Perhaps you've heard a bit of talk regarding the role natural gas will play in transitioning our nation's energy in a more sustainable direction and thereby ridding us of our dependence on foreign oil. Most natural gas fans say it's a "bridge" fuel, it's domestically abundant, it's cheap, so we should give it the go-ahead as our breakthrough solution to oil.

Well, here's one major reason not too: our nation's water supply.

The process by which natural gas is extracted from deep within the earth is known hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing consists of pumping a fluid with more than 245 chemicals, most of which are known carcinogens, down under the earth in high pressures to create fractures in gas-bearing rock. The drilling process was safely ushered past would be barriers like the "Safe Drinking Water Act," the "Clean Water Act," the "Right to Know Act," and the "Clean Air Act" in 2005 because it's Halliburton's drilling process, and of course Vice President, Dick Cheney was in charge back then.

But the process is far from risk-free. Studies have found that the toxins used in drilling seep into the water supply, and for that reason it must be studied further. 

Currently, Halliburton and Natural Gas proponents are looking to tap into the Marcellus Shale, a black shale formation extending deep underground from Ohio and West Virginia northeast into Pennsylvania and southern New York. Geologists estimate the Marcellus Shale contains between 168 trillion to 516 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. And to put this into context, says the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, New York State uses about 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year. That's a lot of energy to be gained by drilling. But, more than 40 million citizens get their drinking water from the area in question and along with hydraulic fracturing, says organizations like NYH20, comes chemical seepage that would flow into our ground water. 

If you live in this area, or have a shale formation near you, this is an issue to keep your eye on in the near future. 

Photo courtesy of Save the Finger Lakes