Fracking: the surprising new proving ground for water technologies. Big advancements in wastewater treatment could be coming from an unexpected source: the oil and gas industry.
The growth of fracking brings with it a heavy demand for water, and that's straining water supplies, often in drought-prone areas. The conflict over water has fueled adoption of new water reuse and recycling techniques, making the fracking market a valuable new proving ground for these technologies – which could later be used in other industries, experts say.
"There's a lot of money," says Monika Freyman, the water program manager at shareholder activist group Ceres. "Big and small innovative companies are chasing this area. " Earlier this month, US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz predicted "increasing tensions" between energy and water at an oil and gas conference, the latest reminder of the growing importance of water in energy. Consider Clean Membranes, a startup with a novel filtration system that can produce extremely pure, lab-quality water. Shale Gas - Energy. Shale Gas and Water An independent review of shale gas exploration and exploitation in the UK with a particular focus on the implications for the water environment Key messages The report investigates the potential impacts on water resources, water treatment and the impacts on the water environment.
The impacts of a shale gas industry on the water environment may not become apparent until a substantial industry has grown. Therefore water and sewerage companies should be engaged with early enough to ensure that they are able to deliver their duties and ensure there is resilience within the water supply system. CIWEM believes that as a shale gas industry develops in this country we need to ensure that the environment as a whole and the water environment in particular are safeguarded. For further information please contact Laura Grant. UK environmentalists brace for flood <br>of fracking.
Environmentalists in the United Kingdom are reeling after French energy giant Total became the first company to announce an investment in fracking in the country.
The $48 million play is tiny by industry standards, but many see it as the first sign that Prime Minister David Cameron’s push to allow the controversial practice has paid off, despite protests from environmentalists who say the environmental danger posed by shale gas exploration (commonly known as fracking) outweighs the potential economic benefits. Fracking — a process in which thousands of gallons of water mixed with chemicals and sand are injected into drilled wells in order to break up shale rich with oil and natural gas — has been spreading across the U.S., giving environmentalists and proponents of the practice in the U.K. precedents to point to when arguing their case. Advocates point out that communities like Williston, N.D., and parts of Pennsylvania have seen huge economic gains because of fracking.
Ohio earthquakes triggered by fracking, research shows. A fracking well in Ohio is believed to have triggered a series of earthquakes, according to a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research . The NorthStar 1 well, which went into operation in late 2010, is used to pump wastewater produced by fracking in neighboring Pennsylvania. Since recordkeeping began in 1776, residents of Youngstown, Ohio had never experienced an earthquake. That all changed in 2011, when seismometers recorded more than 100 earthquakes between that year and the well’s cessation in February 2012. The truth about David Cameron's fracking fairytale. Davos tends to turn the hardest of heads.
During the annual meetings, where businesses pay big bucks to rub shoulders with political leaders and thinkers, a contagious aura of smugness fills this Alpine valley like a fog, killing much sense of reality. Politicians need a quick corridor story to sell their country's virtues, and David Cameron has landed on a peculiarly ill-informed one. Most narratives are falsifiable only with the passage of time, but Cameron's story is demonstrably a fairytale right now. The Cameron song is that Britain is going to be "re-shoring" businesses – the opposite of offshoring – in part because of cheap gas as fracking takes off: prices will fall as they have in the US, where they are just a third of Europe's prices.
British consumers, whose bills will be halved, will doff their caps to Tory ministers who made possible this revolution of cheap energy. This is not a vision but a fantasy. Assume, however, that our shale deposits are frackable. Eastbayexpress. To date, the most serious environmental impacts related to fracking have been groundwater contamination and air pollution.
Indeed, for many environmentalists, water and air pollution are reasons enough to oppose fracking and push for a ban on the oil- and natural gas-extraction method in California and throughout the nation. But there's an emerging body of evidence that fracking, and a similar process known as acidizing, pose yet another serious threat to the earth — especially in California. They're increasingly being linked to earthquakes. A environmental study released last week, titled "On Shaky Ground: Fracking, Acidizing, and Increased Earthquake Risk in California," concluded that if the state rapidly expands fracking and acidizing in order to extract oil and natural gas from the massive Monterey shale deposit in Central and Southern California, the results could be catastrophic.
California, after all, is already one of the most seismically active regions in the world.