Hydraulic Fracture: Chemical Safety Analysis

A Quantitative Analysis of the Safety of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids

By Robert E. Davis formerly P&G’s Market Research Group Supervisor for Packaged Soaps and Detergents in the late 1960’s and 1970’s during the environmental controversies over the impact of phosphates and NTA on water quality. He retired from P&G in 1993 as Research Manager for New Products Worldwide. He is a founder and an active member of The Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes and creator of this website.

Safety Analysis Part I contains the following nugget:

as drilling companies say they use such tiny amounts of chemicals in fracturing gas wells – of the million or so gallons of liquid pumped into a well, only .5 percent or so are chemicals – that they are diluted beyond harmful levels. But on some drilling sites, the seemingly tiny percentage of .5 percent translates to more than 5,000 gallons of chemicals concentrated in a relatively small area.

Who can forget that only a small amount of spilled frack fluid that was more than 99% fresh water killed 17 cattle in only a few hours.

Part I also lists numerous horrifying health warnings from the MSDS that include:

• permanent tissue damage
• ingestion may be fatal
• carcinogen
• malformed fetuses.

This is from the section about water supply and disposal:

Environmental cleanup can be a very difficult task. It’s often uncertain as to whether the contamination is completely eliminated.

All that and there’s still a Safety Analysis II!

After you read A Quantitative Analysis of the Safety of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids and The Safety of Fracturing Fluids – A Quantitative Assessment you will want to click over…

Hydraulic Fracture: ALERT! Take This Easy Action To Protect Our Water