Scientific Journal Review

'Hydraulic Fracturing or Fracking: A Short Summary of Current Knowledge and Potential Environmental Impacts' may sound a little dry for a Wednesday afternoon, but upon further inspection this report compiled by Dr Dave Healey of Aberdeen University raises some important issues concerning the future of fracking in the UK. The paper also provides an excellent base knowledge of the fracking process which builds upon information from my previous post- 'What Is Fracking?' During the next few posts I hope to explore in further detail the key themes that I have taken away from this paper. I aim to do this by collating evidence from supplementary scientific journals and other media resources.

The link for this paper is below; it also appears in my introductory blog.(http://www.epa.ie/pubs/reports/research/sss/UniAberdeen_FrackingReport.pdf)

The key areas for further investigation are:

• seismic activity in subsurface geology and potential consequences
• likelihood of ground water contamination; concerning sources from both methane leakages and from the fracking fluid used
• potentially harmful chemical additives used in fracking fluid; particularly concentrating on American Legislature that allows companies to not disclose the composition of their fluid mixture
• the consequnces of elevated fluid pressure in wells and possible 'blow-outs'
• sourcing the millions of litres of water required to run one active well and the potential threats on local hydrogeology and ecology
• the disposal of spent fracking fluid
• the safety of fracking...Is it all about good practice?

Well, that should keep me busy for at least the next couple of weeks!


Perhaps the most important issue raised by Healey is the current lack of scientific literature available, which is greatly outweighed by pseudo-science popularised by the media. This is a quote taken from page 10 of the report:

 

''Public debate in the US and elsewhere is polarised between an industry funded

lobby on the one hand, and environmental groups on the other. Finding the ‘truth’

about the tangible impacts on the environment from the mass of published, non-peer

reviewed material, much of it comprising claim and counter-claim, is non-trivial. There have

been relatively few published, peer-reviewed scientific reports into the potential

environmental impacts of fracking.''