CONNOR HOFFMAN
Staff Writer
Confused about the recent ban on fracking in New York? Confused about what fracking is in the first place? The annual brown bag lecture series will feature the topic of fracking in New York and the recent ban.
The first brown bag lecture will be in the Williams Center, room S204, on Feb. 4. The lecture will feature insight from Dr. Sherri Mason, a professor of chemistry; Dr. Peter Reinelt, the chair of the economics department; and Glen Wahl, a regional environmentalist and co-founder of Cattaraugus-Chautauqua for Clean Water.
The event will be moderated by Mason and will explain the ban on fracking and some of the negative consequences fracking has caused to our environment.
“The brown bag lecture is to discuss interesting current issues in a comfortable setting,” said Reinelt.
Hydraulic fracturing, more commonly referred to as fracking, is a drilling technique used to extract natural gas. This process functions by releasing a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into a well.
“The purpose of the water is to break apart the rock, to create fractures or fissures in the rock; the sand is intended to hold those fractures or fissures open so that, then, any gas that is contained in the rock can migrate out of the rock into the same well that’s dug and then released into the surface,” said Mason further explaining the process.
Many of the chemicals that are released into the well are toxic or carcinogenic.
“We’re not just using straight water; it’s a mixture of water with at least 500 chemicals that are added to water,” continued Mason.
One of the main problems of fracking, that the media has shone a light on, is the fact that it can cause drinking water to become flammable.
The way this happens is that, in order to get to the shale, the companies have to drill through the groundwater reserves. The companies are supposed to create a cement casing to stop gases from getting into the water, but that is a common measure which companies decide to cut costs on, according to Mason. Either the gases get in through the cement or the fracking of the rocks may cause the gases to get into the water.
Another problem that Mason mentioned was that the fracking industry has found an exception to the Clean Water Act and does not currently have to release the chemicals they use.
Many people who support fracking like to mention the economic benefits it could bring — jobs and money. Mason mentioned how, although it does bring jobs, the problem is that these jobs are temporary and the damage to the environment is permanent.
According to both Reinelt and Mason, most of the places that have started fracking such as Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio and North Dakota have seen an increase in earthquakes.
“Is that completely illogical?” said Mason in regard to the correlation between fracking and earthquakes. “You just basically broke apart the ground underneath where you’re living and you’re thinking that’s not going to have an impact.”
Fracking does leave some damaging effects on the environment, but it may be better for the environment than coal.
“Coal is killing 20,000 people a year in the United States,” said Reinelt. “If you start replacing that with natural gas you’re starting to save thousands of people a year from an improved environment. The local environment could be worse where the fracking occurs but the air quality could become a lot better. Switching from coal to natural gas reduces 90 percent of the deaths caused by coal pollution.
“If you’re displacing coal with this, even though fracking has its own environmental consequences, you’re getting rid of [an] even worse one and that’s the part people don’t really understand as much,” continued Reinelt.
According to Reinelt, the main reason that we use natural gas is its cheapness; part of its cheapness is ignoring the environmental costs.
Fracking is certainly a very controversial and confusing issue. The intention of the lecture is to add insight that may clear up this confusion.