Whats the big deal with fracking anyway?

Fracking involves blasting high volumes of water and sand, mixed with chemicals, down deep wells, thousands of feet underground, to break apart gas-rich rock formations called shale to release pockets of natural gas.

Wastewater (frack water) is created when that water, sand and chemical mixture returns to the surface immediately after the hydraulic fracturing is carried out and continues to emerge from the well after production begins.

The waste water contains the water mixture pumped down the well as well as contaminants naturally found within underground rock formations.

A 2011 congressional report on the chemicals used in hydraulic fracking, states that the 14 leading hydraulic fracturing companies in the U.S. injected 10.2 million gallons containing chemicals that are known carcinogens, regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act or listed as hazardous air pollutants. Some chemicals in frack water are methanol; benzene, diesel fuel; lead; hydrogen fluoride (no it won’t be good for your teeth, but useful as a rust remover); naphthalene (a carcinogen found in mothballs.); sulfuric acid (carcinogen found in lead-acid batteries. Contact with eyes leads to a total loss of vision. Lethal dose is 1 teaspoon.); crystalline silica (carcinogen found in concrete - make your muscles hard.); and formaldehyde (used in embalming human remains. Ingestion of one ounce can cause death. But you’ll have a well preserved corpse and save money at the undertaker in preparation costs.)

Advocates say the treatment of this frack water can be done safely and discharged into the Great Lakes with nary a problem and will bring big money to Niagara Falls. Undertakers and cancer physicians see a potential boom in business.

Advocates say fracking will provide a “Saudi Arabia” of clean, natural gas that will help America become less dependent on energy-rich foreign nations. President Obama said the natural gas industry could create 600,000 jobs within the next eight years.