May 5, 2011
The word hydrofracking has been all over campus for the past few weeks, in e-mails, posters and signs. Many students may feel as though this is simply another environmental campaign that they do not have to care about because they are not in HEAG or they are not from New York. Hydrofracking, however, has become a growing danger across the country. Currently, low volume vertical hydrofracking is allowed in New York, but high volume horizontal hydrofracking, which involves millions of gallons of water and significantly more disruption of the shale layer, is banned. Yet, this ban might be lifted in New York State on July 3, which could have severe effects on Hamilton’s campus.
To understand why you should care, you first must understand the dangers of the process. Hydrofracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a method for accessing pockets and veins of natural gas stored up to a mile below the surface. The man-made process mimics natural occurrences, such as how the expansion of water when it freezes into ice puts pressure on surrounding shale, causing fractures in the rocks. However, the man-made method involves drilling down to the shale and creating pressure on the rocks by injecting millions of gallons of water mixed with a range of toxic chemicals into the well, creating enough pressure to break up the shale and release the methane, or natural gas.
This methane then rises to the surface and is collected, along with some of the water and chemicals. However, much of the contaminated water cannot be recollected, and there are not yet safe and effective disposal techniques. Opponents to hydrofracking worry that this contaminated water will leak into groundwater, especially when the region is in a watershed region (where the surrounding streams and rivers lead into larger bodies of water).
Ali Crivelli ’14, who was working at tables in Beineke at which students could sign an anti-hydrofracking petition last week, explained that “these companies don’t have to obey the Clean Air Act or the Clean Water Act.”
Although chemical companies argue that the water cannot get into groundwater, last November the EPA found chemicals known to be used in hydrofracking in the groundwater of a town in Wyoming that was near a hydrofracking well. The drinking water contained copper, arsenic, and several carcinogens. But because the oil companies don’t have to disclose what chemicals they used, the EPA cannot definitively say that the contaminated water was due to hydrofracking.
There have also been other, more dire consequences to hydrofracking. Crivelli explained that “people are getting sick in places where hydrofracking is prevalent. In some places, people have been able to light their tap water on fire because of gas leakage into it.”
Either way, many New Yorkers, especially those in New York City, are worried, and Hamilton students should be too. Hamilton sits over the Marcellus Shale and the leaking of toxic chemicals into our environment could contaminate our drinking water and our environment. Even if students are not concerned about Hamilton’s campus, many cities in New York and Pennsylvania get their water from reservoirs that would be affected by the contamination from hydrofracking.
A large portion of New York City’s drinking water comes from the Catskill Mountain watershed, which is partially located over the Marcellus Shale. Contamination of this watershed could severely impact the entire city. Even if you are not from this region, contamination could still affect you. If the drinking water in one region is unusable, water has to be taken from elsewhere. In turn, a major shortage in fresh water in any one region in the country could become a nationwide issue.
Hydrofracking also fails to provide a long-term solution to the nation’s dependence on energy. Reducing our dependence on foreign oil is important,but the best way to do so is to find other sources of energy besides oil, rather than simply finding other sources of oil. Even though there are predicted to be 400 trillion gallons of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, current methods only allow for about 10 percent recovery of this gas. The expense of purifying and cleaning up the natural gas after the drilling process is enormous.
As Crivelli said, “Another thing that is important is moving toward green energy in America for future generations.”
Preventing further hydrofracking allows the money that would be spent on reversing the environmental damage from the process to instead be spent on developing greener energy sources, which is certainly an issue that will affect all Hamilton students.