What is hydraulic fracturing and why is it necessary?
Hydraulic fracturing is a method in which water and sand are pumped down the wellbore at high pressure in order to create cracks and fissures in the rock to allow connectivity to the wellbore with the sand keeping the newly created passageways open. This allows the natural gas that was otherwise trapped in the rock to flow with its natural pressure differential between the surface and reservoir deep under ground. This process was first used commercially in the U.S. in 1949. Over the past 60 years, more than one million wells have been hydraulically fractured with no incidents of any impact to our drinking water. Today, almost 90% of wells drilled in the United States are stimulated with hydraulic fracturing in order to allow or increase production. The process has been studied by multiple regulatory agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and declared safe. The EPAs last full study report was conducted in 2004 and can be found on the EPA website. (Links to those
