Fracking and water pollution Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Fracking and water pollution - Research Paper Example fracking fluid, comprising of common toxins and carcinogens such as uranium, lead, mercury, methanol, formaldehyde, hydrochloric acid, ethane glycol etc (Spellman, 2013). Waste water resulting from fracking usually has a lot of potentially poisonous chemicals from the fracking fluid and natural contaminants from very deep in the ground, comprising of totally dissolved solids (such as barium, salts and strontium)radioactive materials like Radium 226 as well as organic pollutants like toluene and benzene. About thirty to seventy percent of all the fluid utilised in fracking is likely to resurface, and thus requires treatment. In addition, fracking discharges â€Å"produced water† mainly from underground which also ascends onto the surface, and mostly can be somewhere from two to two hundred times as much water, something dependent on the water/gas/oil absorption in the shale configuration. It has been proved therefore beyond any reasonable doubt that waste water arising due to fracking has a lot of possibly dangerous chemicals that were used in the fracking liquid, in addition to deep underground natural contaminants (Spellman, 2013). For these contaminants and chemicals to be removed, all techniques of wastewater management (comprising of reuse, recycling as well as injecting into dumping wells) normally entail some kind of treatment. Eventually, wastewater can be pumped to treatment works that are publicly owned or rather to dedicated industrial or brine wastewater plants, also known as centralized waste treatment plants, which might also add precipitation and coagulation methods in removing of dissolved solids. All treatment techniques produce residuals-which basically are waste materials, mainly in sludge, liquid or solid form, that mostly stay after treatment. Because of public concerns regarding the huge volumes of water used in hydraulic drilling, gas and oil fracturing corporations have begun not only reusing but also recycling the wastewater (Spellman,