Fracking - your thoughts?

[craigowl 0]

The driest parts of the UK in the southeast are the most densely populated. I believe water comes to many by artesian wells underground.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Bottles of Evian from Tesco it is then :D

[craigowl 0]

see here - http://www.southernwater.co.uk/at-home/your-water/water-resources/where-our-water-comes-from/groundwater.asp

 

Also, we used to hear this, years ago - "Anything that's passed through so many kidneys has to be very pure indeed." (A reference to the saying that London tap-water is allegedly filtered by seven sets of kidneys).

Edited August 23, 2013 by craigowl

[DriverVR6 11]

This might make me sound like a bit of a hippy but.. so be it. I'm getting increasingly concerned at the rate at which corporations are able to exploit natural resources, seemingly with impunity and without any concern for outcomes which because of vast profits they're always able to pay off. You only have to look at BP, Halliburton, and all those crooks and the outcomes in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

It feels as though, in the case of fracking, simply not enough research has been made widely available / accessible by the press. I'm obviously not informed enough to know whether it's safe enough, so in the mean time in concerns me about potentially permanent damage to different layers under us, like the water table, etc. I simply don't know who to trust as you never know which piece of research has had which corporations 'sponsoring' the research.

 

I'd be more reassured if I *knew* it was safe, wasn't going to cause earthquakes, etc.

 

Jim, the thing is if any company can make money at low cost by taking a natural resource out of the ground, then you can bet they are going to do it. Most of these companies have politicians (or ex politicians) on their boards so they'll always sweep any concerns (evidence based or not)the general public may have.

[andy b 10]

i let you lot know if i get fizzy tap water just listern out for the big burps from done south, sussex man may develope a new mating call from burping?. balcombe aint that far away

[coullstar 0]

The key phrase is - the closer you live to a well used to hydraulically fracture underground shale for natural gas, the more likely it is that your drinking water is contaminated with methane. Thats like saying the closer you live to an airport the more chance a plane will land on your house. It doesnt mean it will happen.

What they need to say (after determing were it came from) is how much they are finding and if it is at a level that will cause any harm. They also need to look at the well design/ placement as this could be from when they first started and didnt appreciate potential leak paths. Im not saying it isnt the cause but need more facts first.

[coullstar 0]

Interesting - http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/129261/Fracking_Goes_Waterless_Gas_Fracking_Could_Silence_Critics/?all=HG2

[Jim 2]

It's a little hard to take an article like that with any shred of impartiality though, given that it's on a website billed as "Your Gateway to the Oil and Gas Industry", and with sub-titles in the article like "Water Conservationists Line Up Against Fracking Companies" :|

[davidwort 0]

Radio 4 had a good programme on this yesterday, I didn't realise for instance that we have been extracting gas from underground in the UK (up to about 1200 metres) for over 50 years, and any gas leaks into groundwater are caused by the drilling and not the fracking at depth, fracking goes down lower to about 3000m, and tremors triggered by fracking will reduce the likelyhood of a larger 'natural' tremor that might actually do damage years later in the same location.

[coullstar 0]

It's a little hard to take an article like that with any shred of impartiality though, given that it's on a website billed as "Your Gateway to the Oil and Gas Industry", and with sub-titles in the article like "Water Conservationists Line Up Against Fracking Companies" :|

 

Yes its an industry website but I would say thats narrow minded to think like that. They are highlighting the issues with fracking and saying that there is an alternative to the water fracking.

I think your perceprtion of oil companies is all wrong or at least the people who work in them, they do actually care about making as little impact as possible. We dont all walk about with Stetsons and cowboys boots drilling into anything and everything. Its a necessary evil drilling and producing oil.

[jamiehamy 0]

I'm not particularly for it and for fairly unscientific reasons.

 

We're f**king with the earth and I'm not convinced that it's good for it. All this short term greed for gas - let's face it, gas prices, or should I say, our gas bills are not going to come down. And tell, me, how much water does this all use? Did I not read that water is precious....funny that fact has disappear from the equation.

 

Quite simply from the descriptions of fracking, I just think 'disnae sounds right'. similarly tho, I'm not very supportive of wind farms either. Most people think they are just these pretty white things spinning away in the wind, without a moments through to the tens of thousands of tons of peat that has been displaced and the impact on water courses of replacing it with concrete. Neither do enough people give a thought to how energy companies are ready for when the wind drops early, or gets too strong (my brother works for an energy company - it's happens all the time). Well, they keep another power station going, just in case. Really energy efficient.

 

I'm a strong supporter of nuclear power, and before anyone accuses me of being a NIMBY - i have a nuclear power station 10miles down the road, a nuclear submarine base across the water, and a nuclear weapons store not far away from that.

 

Nuclear is the way forward - expensive? Maybe, but everything is. And while we're at it - the SNP think that Scotland can be a 'Greener, fairier' Scotland under Indy - ye, whilst selling off as much oil as humanly possible to reap the revenues to stop us from going bust and without a say in how it's used....very good. As long as we d't burn it, then it must be good for climate change.

 

I'm not even a tree hugger, but just get sick of all the fake pretence that people and companies are doing us all a favour when really, it's the bottom line they care about. Why do people not just accept that we're killing the planet and stop all this ridiculous justification of money making schemes in the name of saving the planet?

 

 

Jeeeeewiz, I woke up all calm this Sat morning!

[Bullfinch 0]

This is all good stuff and shows the diversity of the Corrado forum:). Like Coullstar I also work in the industry and my 2+ years spent in Australia I was working on one of their large coal seam gas projects in Queensland. Extraction of CSG is slightly different to shale gas but that can wait for another day.

The issue for me regarding shale gas and the fracking required to extract commercial quantities is that the economics would be fairly marginal in the UK. You have to drill an awful lot of wells to get sufficient gas (in Australia we're drilling 2,000+ to get enough for our LNG plant) and that takes up quite a wide area which is something we don't really have in the UK. Whilst the US may now almost be self sufficient in gas its actually depressed prices so much that all the big oil and gas companies are scaling back and leaving it to the smaller players. I can't see these guys having such rigid environmental protection procedures in place and so the risk of a major incident is fairly high.

In the UK we are close to facing an energy crisis as the remaining coal fired power stations will be switched off within the next few years and so far there aren't any firm plans to make up the missing shortfall. I think the reality for the UK is that we will become a major importer of gas from the US in a few year's time as the US starts to export gas via new LNG terminals being built along the Gulf of Mexico. This will work out cheaper than establishing our own UK shale gas industry. One thing's for sure our energy bills will not be falling anytime soon:(

[jamiehamy 0]

bulfinch, I was talking to my bro about this this afternoon and he agrees with you in respect of us becoming an importer of gas from the US rather than making major investment into fracking here.

 

Ironically, as much as rising household bills annoy me, I must be honest - mine have not gone up in 5 years. I'm in an 1890 top floor flat that had literally no insulation. I've done the ceilings and now started on the dormers (stripping them and putting mult-foil in) as well as having a pretty efficient boiler. Next stop is to put in new double glaszing when we can afford it and I reckon we wouldn't need much heating. It's amazing how much less often the boiler kicks in now. My bills have barely risen which is good.

 

At least in the UK we are starting to get somewhere with insulation.

[Jim 2]

Apologies for being the negative one but read this, this morning...

 

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/10/radioactive-wastewater-from-fracking-is-found-in-a-pennsylvania-stream/#.Ukx4Cpn6i3J.reddit

[coullstar 0]

Its a good article to highlight that there is issues if its not regulated properly, something that the UK would do I think.

[jamiehamy 0]

Like they regulated the banks?