ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2010)
Recent studies at the University at Buffalo has shown that drilling Marcellus shale for natural gas, also known as "fracking", is causing uranium to be released into the ground. The uranium eventually percolates down and enters groundwater.
Uranium is naturally found within Marcellus shale. This massive rock formation is located in New York and strethces down through Pennsylvania and Ohio, to West Virginia. Marcellus shale is starting to become the nation's largest source of natural gas.
To test her inquiry, Tracy and her colleagues tested the grounds of drilled Marcellus shale with sensitive chemical instruments. Their results showed that they are not only found physically together, but are also chemically bound to each other. This could be an extremely dangerous event if the contaminated water reaches the surface by causing the water to become a hazardous waste.
Opinion: This is extremely alarming! Uranium is one of the deadliest toxins in the world, and knowing that some is in our groundwater is horrific. Even knowing that it's even in our own state of Pennsylvania is more frightening! There must be something done immediately about this drilling before it starts affecting our environment. Either some regulations or health precautions must be done by the government or EPA. Hopefully this problem will be taken care of ASAP!
Questions:
1. Did you ever think there would be this dangerous of a contaminate in our groundwater?
2. Who do you think will act first to this problem?
3. Is this the only way that uranium can enter our water? Name some other ways.
Wow! That is really something, I never would have guessed that is going on. As Jake said it is very alarming and frightening that it is even going on in Pennsylvania and that it is going into the groundwater is another thing we need to worry about. Since I live in the state of Pennsylvania I obviously do not want this going on anymore. I don't want one day for it to get into our drinking water if that is even possible. We must take care of this right away.#1. No I honestly never thought this could happen to our state, but we need to take the task head on of fixing it.#2. I think the EPA will be the first to act to the problem because the government has too much other stuff going on. #3. I think this might be the only way it could unless something weird happend. Here is a link expanding on this topic:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.denverpost.com/ci_14894696 this is not in the state of Pennsylvania, but still the same crisis.
This is UNBELIEVABLE!!!! I'm glkad we caught it when we did, and when it is fixable. This had, and still has, the potential to be really bad. If we do not do something abouyt this soon, the problem will become really bad and worse than it is now. We (as human bgeings) need to make sure we get this problem solved, as jake said, ASAP! Answer to question 1: No I did not ever suspect there is something wrong with our drinking water so to find out there is is very surprising. Question 2: AS Chris said I think the EPA will be the frist to act since it is an enviornmental issue and EPA deals with all enviornmental problems. Question 3: There are probably not really any other ways, but if asked this same question yesterday I wouldnt have thought of what happened as a way Uranium can enter our water, so there may be other ways just not any I can think of.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that there needs to be something done about this before we start drinking this toxic water. I guess I can say that I've know that the water we drink isn't perfectly clean and filtered, but I never would have thought that we could possibly be drinking water contaminated with a toxicant so extreme as Uranium. This is very alarming and unfortunate that this could be a problem in our state of Pennsylvania, but could there be this problem in more states that haven't been discovered yet? I'm not sure, but I do think that it is extremely necessary to find a solution to this before it causes all sorts of medical issues for us.
ReplyDelete1) No, I never thought something like Uranium would be in our water. Of course there are minor things we are drinking, but not to such an extreme.
2) I think people from the states where this is a problem will try to find a solution to this first, because we will be the first affected.
Along with Ben’s blog about cleaning up our oceans, this is another important article about water and how we affect it. A couple weeks ago I saw a segment on an MSNBC news show about fracking (or hydraulic fracturing) and the dangers of drilling underground in our “backyards” not carefully enough. They also showed this video (which you can find at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U01EK76Sy4A, and another one at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwogQWLEqW8&feature=related) which clearly shows that not only is this gas escaping real but also the effects of gases escaping out of the ground and into our piping/sewage system.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know about you guys but this blog is kind of like a puzzle and the picture that is forming from all these blogs spells out a consistency of humans errors causing our environment and ecosystem to deteriorate.
The technique of hydraulic fracturing is used to increase or restore the rate at which fluids, such as oil, gas or water, can be produced from a reservoir, or unconventional reservoir like (in this case) shale and coal beds. Fracking can also be known to cause minor earthquakes.
Despite this fracking problem environmental authorities are doing a good job of enforcing the law and making sure that people can drilling safely while the neighbors won’t be affected. For example, in 2009, the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals act (FRAC) was passed (with help from Pennsylvania’s own Bob Casey) to support this cause. The FRAC act allows the EPA to regulate hydraulic fracturing that occurs in states that have not already taken action in fracking and requires the energy industry to reveal what chemicals are being used in the process.
Another answer to Jake’s second question is that in April 2010, Pennsylvania banned Cabot Oil and Gas Corp from working at all in Pennsylvania so it is obvious that measures have been taken already.
Answering Jake’s first question I did not ever think that this would be a serious problem for my water supply. In my opinion I think the local treatment plants do a great diligent job of filtering our water so it is healthy and meets regulations. And honestly, I don’t really care or notice if something is in my water unless I can really taste it or see it.
I don’t know if this is uranium but every once in a while my tap water turns white (not clearish white, just plain white). It’s so weird and then it just settles down to the bottom. So even though I have not paid close attention to my water, there seems to be some stuff in it.
And thirdly, I looked on the internet to find other sources of uranium and I found out that uranium also comes from:
Phosphate fertilizers, combustion of coal and other fuels, emissions from nuclear industries, nearby uranium mines, and mill tailings (Ground rock remaining after particular ore minerals (uranium oxides) are extracted).
So obviously there are a lot of sources to limit but the government is still doing a great job of limiting uranium deposits.