Hydraulic fracturing (freking) — a process that is used in the oil and gas industry for the extraction of fossil fuels to a depth of two miles beneath the earth — can directly affect the water supply in the country, reduce the number of places for recreation and water sports, as well as increase the value of Food.
For a complex cocktail that is required for each well, you need about 2 million pounds of silica sand as much as 100,000 gallons of toxic chemicals and from three to nine million gallons of fresh water. The country has.
In 2011 — the last year for which data are available — the Texas energy company used about 26.5 million gallons of water. Energy companies to drill in Pennsylvania, They are followed by Colorado and Arkansas. Nuclear power plants that use more water can be a significant part of it to get through recycling. As water discharges at frekinge toxic, oil and gas companies can not re-use contaminated water.
This water supply companies that export up to three million gallons per day from rivers and lakes, and individuals who sell water from their own ponds, as well as municipalities.
Steubenville, OH, prints one of its tanks todaily for 5 years of "Chesapeake Enerdzhi» (Chesapeake Energy), one of the largest players in the market frekinga.
This Big Energy. However, the reserves of fresh water is not limitless.
For about the past five years, stocks of water in aquifers in the country have become much smaller. Depletion since 2008, Leonard Konikova, water scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, has accelerated almost three times as compared with the period from 1900 to 2008.
A significant reduction of flow is now quite usual for 1,450-mile Colorado River, which supplies water to 40 million people in California and the Southwest, including agricultural breadbasket — Imperial Valley in southeastern California. Lake Mead, part of the water system of Colorado, gives water to Las Vegas and the Nevada desert communities, and its level is close to the mark whenand impose strict limits water use.
Drying up of rivers, lakes and aquifers — a consequence of population growth, increased water use, climate change and severe drought, which is rampant throughout the Midwest and the South-West for the last three years.
Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES), Based on their analysis of more than 25,000 wells,, that almost 47% of the wells, which uses freking being developed in areas where there is a high or very high levels of water stress, 92% of all gas wells in Colorado are located in areas of extremely high stress, in Texas 51% of the wells are located in areas with high or a very high level of water stress.
Water at frekinge so important that oil and gas companiesin the amount of $ 1000 — $ 2000 for approximately 326,000 gallons and heckle the price of water to farmers in dry areas of the country, regular price is $ 30 — $ 100 for the same amount. Furthermore, drillersthe Midwest and the South-West of this was given as Ohio and Pennsylvania.Dr. Reagan Veskoma, director of the Water Institute at Colorado State University Colorado Companies "are willing to pay, how many requests."
If farmers have to pay more for their water, they will raise the prices of their products. If they can not get enough water due to the fact that energy companies charge as much as they can get, they will grow smaller crops and reduce the number of livestock, which will cause food prices to rise. This is a simple example of the law of supply and demand.
However, there are other problems. Some farmers and owners of corporate farms often sell water to energy companies, and they can get more money for water, leaving fields fallow, than can help out by growing crops and selling it to wholesalers and distributors.
The changing reality can cause a rise in food prices.
Fossil fuel production and agriculture have always coexisted. But now things are changing.
In North Dakota, Montana and Saskatchewan, covering approximately 200,000 square miles to a depth of 4,500 to 7,500 feet below the surface, lies the Bakken Shale oil shale deposits (Bakken Shale). Oil in these shales, But because the thickness of the formation ranges from 13 to 140 feet, the use of conventional drilling techniques it uneconomic as long as five years ago did not apply the technology frekinga horizontal.
Bakken Shale lies directly under some of the most fertile fields in the United States for the cultivation of wheat. North Dakota farmers produce nearly three-quarters of the firm of "amber" wheat ("amber durum"), grown in the United States. Which has a high content of protein, one of the hardest varieties of whole wheat, it forms the basis for most of the food in the world. This wheat is used to make all kinds of pasta, cakes pizza, couscous and many types of bread. Red wheat ("Ed Durum"), another variety, used for fattening cattle. North Dakota farmers last year(About 1.4 million tons) of "amber" of wheat, nearly three-quarters of the wheat of the classU.S.. About one-third of its— Primarily in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
The destruction of the wheat fields, caused by a combination of global warming and frekinga, will lead to a drop in production, rising prices and the widening of hunger.
Leaders of energy companies, buying land and getting mining rights on leased areas, have become as much a disaster for the wheat fields, like locusts. However, gas companies and oil companies do not need too much cajoling farmers, many of whom at the time of the Great Recession are already on the verge of bankruptcy. Farmers have lost some of their land to energy companies in exchange for immediate profit and the promise of the future lease payments. By November 2012, there were in North Dakota.
In 2006, thein the fields of North Dakota was about 92 million gallons. It is expected that this year the company will produce more energy 15.2 billion gallons. When drilling for oil and also receive natural gas, in a field near its.
In Pennsylvaniaunder the development of natural gas by frekinga. Pennsylvania Office of the Co-operative extension services, these lands are unlikely to be productive over the years because of "consolidation and changes in the landscape." Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey, that "the chance of restoring the destroyed fertile soil to a natural state in the near future is low."
The presence of companies making drilling for oil and gas, has also led to a decrease in the production of milk and cheese. Researchers from Pennsylvania, Riley Adams and Dr. Timothy Kelsey concluded: "The change of dairy cattle as well, probably due to the activity level of the development of the Marcellus field." In counties where there are 150 or more wells Marcellus Shale deposits, the average decrease in dairy cowscompared with a decline of livestock by an average of 1.2% in those counties where such wells are not.
Under some of the most fertile agricultural lands in the country in the arid central California lies a deposit of Monterrey Shale Formation, an area of 1,750 square miles, which contains about two-thirds of the country's proven reserves of oil shale, about 15.4 billion barrels (647 trillion. Gallons). Drillers had already arrived for the purchase of licenses and their supply began what is likely to be the greatest country in the oil and gas boom.
Here in the central valley is cultivated more than 200 different crops, includingall delivered to the world market of almonds, a large part of the production of grapes, and madeall wine sold in the U.S. domestic market. Farmers' cooperative farm San Maid, whose headquarters is in the Central Valley — one of the world's largest raisins and dried fruit.
When politicians unleashed large-scale power, allowing it to apply in the country freking and produce gas, they are like parrots repeated assertions of power engineering that intensive drilling will raise the economy, lower prices for natural gas and help make the U.S. energy independent, freeing them from the need to import oil from -abroad. It turned out that the company bought up much more land than was required, and they have large debts to banks and surplus of natural gas, which caused a fall in pricesfor nearly 10 years.
The solution is to make these patriotic corporations to reduce excess gas and support domestic prices, as the produced gas becomes less available, will develop plans to export natural gas to countries that will pay prices significantly higher than those now offers the U.S. market.
There is one problem. The United States can not import water.
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See Doc. Movie: Shale gas: a death sentence ecosystem USA