General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA single 'frack' uses 5 million gallons of water
Valerie Brown
20th June 2013
. . .
Since the onset of the fracking boom almost a decade ago, every state in the US has been examining its geological resources in the hope of finding oil or gas it can access through this extraction method.
Almost half the states are now producing at least some shale gas, with a few - Texas, Pennsylvania, California, Colorado, North Dakota - sitting on massive deposits. Nearly half a million wells in the US were producing shale gas in 2012.
But while many countries now seek to bolster their economies by following the American lead in exploiting this controversial new source of fossil fuels, campaigners in the US are warning of serious collateral damage to the environment: the depletion and contamination of vital water supplies.
A single 'frack' uses 5 million gallons of water
. . .
Fracking a well just once uses upwards of five million gallons of water, and each well can be fracked 18 times or more.
THE REST:
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2445447/fracking_boom_depletes_pollutes_us_water_supplies.html
nationalize the fed
(2,169 posts)Solar Hydrogen: Fuel of the Future
by Mario Pagliaro , Athanasios G Konstandopoulos
[center]
[/center]
New thermochemical water splitting using concentrated solar power (CSP) as well as CSP coupled to electrolysis has the potential to convert and store solar energy into clean hydrogen using a tiny fraction of the world's desert area to meet our present and future global energy needs. Photovoltaics, in turn, has the versatility required for supporting the creation of a distributed energy generation infrastructure in developing countries especially now that the price of PV solar electricity has fallen to unprecedented low levels.
In all these cases, solar H2 will be used to store energy and release it on demand either for fuel cells (to power homes and boats) or internal combustion engines and turbines (for powering cars, trucks and in thermoelectric power units). This book on solar hydrogen is unique in its field and is a timely treatment of a hot topic in industry, academic, political and environmental circles. With reference to many examples as well as to new technologies, this accessible book provides insight into a crucial technology for our common future and numerous colour pictures contribute to the book's readability.
Written by experts in the field who are engaged at the forefront of research, the book supplies readers with last minute insight from the frontiers of research. The book will be of interest to Politicians, solar PV companies, hydrogen and sustainability researchers, environmentalists, managers in the automotive and nautical industries, undergraduate and graduate students in physics, chemistry, energy and materials science.
http://www.amazon.com/Solar-Hydrogen-Future-Mario-Pagliaro/dp/1849731950/
WhiteTara
(29,692 posts)MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)Using that much fresh drinking water mixed with their sludge of poisons should be enough reason to never allow fracking ever.
Drinking water is too precious to pump under the earth for thousands upon thousands even millions of years.
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)It might be marginally better than tapping the nearest groundwater supply, but the problem of Post Frack wastewater is still there.
I know you don't propose just sending it back out to the sea.
Our oceans are in enough trouble as it is.
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)The salts would fuck up their poison mixture.
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)West Texas, for instance. Which, well. Look at the groundwater depletion:
And the US drought monitor, here: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
pumping billions of gallons of water for fracking doesn't seem like the best thing to be doing, necessarily.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)americannightmare
(322 posts)Texas and California, are among the most active fracking regions. It's madness on a mind-numbing scale.
Blue Owl
(50,263 posts)What a colossal waste!