Wastewater from fracking 'threatening health and the environment'

Wastewater created from fracking for natural gas is threatening people's health and the environment, according to The Natural Resources Defense Council in the US, where methods used to treat and dispose of wastewater have been called 'unsafe'.

Rebecca Hammer of SwitchBoard recently brought these methods to light, questioning the efforts of companies over water pollution. Polluted water surfaces when the gas is extracted from underground shale formations, which can create potentially hazardous wastewater byproducts. The fracking fluid that comes to the surface contains things like salts, oil and grease, metals, radioactive material, and manmade fracking chemicals.

If any of these are left to run into the environment then they can cause a significant amount of damage. Furthermore they are toxic, which means they could cause harm to humans or animals.

Ms Hammer points out that not enough is being done to keep this wastewater away from rivers and drinking water sources. Additionally, the treatment of the water is not sufficient enough to avoid making it an environmental hazard. In a report, she found that "none of the most common ways of dealing with this waste are currently safe for public health or the environment".

In line with these findings, the research team from NRDC have proposed several solutions for the effective treatments and disposal of wastewater caused by fracking.

Municipal sewage works are not designed to deal with this kind of wastewater, yet this is where a lot of the pollution goes. Treatment at these facilities should be avoided, and instead, should be treated in private industrial facilities with improved safeguards.

Other suggestions include banning the wastewater for use in road de-icing, which has become common practice in some colder regions. Storing the water in open pits should also be avoiding as it creates a risk of soil contamination. Underground injection and recycled water used for more fracking also have their drawbacks, and should be tightly regulated for safe use in the future.

Posted by Joseph Hutton