Legislation pending to allow EPA control over CO2 “fracking” (protection of drinking water)
Fracking (fracturing) is a procedure identical to CO2 sequestration used by the oil industry to drive gas/oil to the surface.
Wall Street Journal Friday June 5, 2009
Energy Industry Lobbies to Avert Drilling Rules
On Thursday, June 4th Democratic Reps. Diana DeGette of Colorado and Maurice Hinchey of New York said they plan to introduce legislation to allow the EPA to regulate fracking under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which would repeal a 2005 law that exempted it from EPA oversight.
Submitted article -
The “Fracking” CO2 Sequestration must to be stopped!
Please excuse the “crude” (as in oil) language but:
“Fracking” (fracturing) is the term used in the oil and gas industry that involves the injection of millions of gallons of water and chemicals into oil and gas wells at high pressure. Fracking is used to fracture or crack open dense rock formations thousands of feet underground allowing trapped gas to flow to the surface. That description should give you a clear vision of the dangerous potential of a million of tons of liquid CO2 has as it emerges through a “frack” (fracture). Unlike water, liquid CO2 will expand by over 100-fold with explosive force as it emerges toward the surface. For this reason CO2 is preferred over water for fracking. According to the calculations of Darke County Engineer Jim Surber, the proposed CO2 sequestration could amount to a fraction of a cubic mile of the gas. This fact grossly underestimates the potential for such an event to kill. For most people breathing 5-10% CO2 (certainly the elderly and children) will prove fatal. Therefore this volume must be multiplied by a factor of 10-20. Furthermore since CO2 is of a greater density than air it will spread horizontally as it emerges, thus potentially putting several square miles at risk. Indeed fracking, which is used by the oil and gas industry to drive gases to the surface, is the same process used to permanently sequester the gas CO2 underground. Can this be? The fracking process and CO2 sequestration are identical procedures– except for the fact that fracking is vented by wells reducing the risk of explosive pressures developing. CCS is not vented but capped like a carbonated drink. Due to hydraulic pressure this cap can be “fracked” at any point of time followed by the explosive release by the expanding CO2. Indeed such a thing has happened on numerous occasions in the oil industry.
