Our Watershed

Water Quality And Fracking:

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is a means of natural gas extraction used in deep natural gas well drilling. After a well is drilled, millions of gallons of water, sand and proprietary chemicals are injected, under high pressure into a well. The pressure fractures the shale and props open fissures that enable natural gas to flow more freely out of the well.

In 2005 the Bush/Cheney Energy Bill exempted natural gas drilling from the Safe Drinking Water Act. It exempts companies from disclosing the chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing and elminiates the EPA from the review process. It is now commonly referred to as the "Halliburton Loophole".

80,000 pounds of chemicals are injected into the earth's crust to frack each well. Volatile organic compouns such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene have been identified as components of the fracing process.

1 - 8 million gallons of water are used to frack a well. A well may be fracked up to 18 times.

70% of fracking fluid remains in the ground and is not biodegradable.

65 compounds in fracking chemicals are hazardous to human and animal health.

2,000,000 (two million) gallons of water and up to 100 water haulers are required for each well.

Evaporators evaporate off VOC's and condensate tanks steam off VOC's, 24 hours a day. The wastewater is then trucked to water treatment facilities.

As the VOC's are evaporated and come into contact with diesel exhaust from trucks and generators at the well site, ground level ozone is produced. Ozone plumes can travel up to 250 miles.

The Thompson Divide area is the source of headwaters for numerous creeks radiating in all directions: Thompson, Fourmile and Coal creeks flow east and north to the Roaring Fork; Muddy Creek is a tributary of the Gunnison, to the south; and Divide and Willow creeks flow north and west to the Colorado. Area residents rely on this water for drinking; ranches, farms and households irrigate with it; our recreation-based economy depends on it; and a host of wildlife species can’t survive without it.

We don’t accept that the health of our watershed should be sacrificed for the sake of a few days’ worth of natural gas.

*Excerpts from "Gasland" website.