Get-A-Lifers

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a process used to extract petroleum and natural gas from deep underground. It is commonly used in the Eagle Ford region of Texas, which has a large deposit of oil and gas. However, fracking has many negative impacts, including triggering earthquakes, polluting groundwater, causing air pollution, and releasing toxic chemicals into the atmosphere. It also uses large quantities of water, which can be a problem in areas with limited water resources. Disposing of the wastewater produced by fracking is also a challenge, with some companies recycling and reusing the water while others dump it into bodies of water. There is a lack of regulation and monitoring in Texas, leading to pollution and environmental damage. The cleanup of polluted oil and gas wells is also not properly addressed, with ranchers often left to deal with the contamination themselves. Fracking disproportionately affects densely populated areas and communities near fracking sites. Stanfo Hello and welcome to the Get a Lifers podcast. The earth is running out of coal. To meet our growing demand for power and energy, we've turned to other fossil fuels. Petroleum and natural gases stir deep underground. To get them, we blast the ground with a mixture of water and chemicals, breaking rock that covers gas wells, and then we drill up the gas in petroleum. This process is called hydraulic fracturing, or more commonly referred to as fracking. But fracking can be unreliable and even pretty dangerous. To help understand the threat, the risks, environmental impacts, and possible solutions, Abel and I have invited Elizabeth. Hello everyone. On to the podcast. Today we'll be focusing on one of the most important and dangerous regions of fracking, the Eagle Ford region of Texas. Right in between San Antonio and Houston, this small area contains urban environments and exceptionally rural ones. With its large deposit of oil and gas hidden deep underground all throughout the region, it is unsurprising that a lot of oil companies choose to frack oil and gas wells in the Eagle Ford region. So yeah, to start out here, Elizabeth, what exactly are these dangers and negative impacts of fracking? Well, first of all, fracking can cause or trigger earthquakes, and if not properly regulated, it can also pollute natural groundwater. Moreover, it also is responsible for air pollution, and it can release a lot of toxic chemicals into the atmosphere. In general, fracking uses large quantities of water in areas where water resources are already scarce or limited, and a lot of difficulty actually comes from what to do with this water afterwards. And what usually happens to this water? Well, previously oil companies have deposited a lot of this wastewater containing potentially toxic chemicals into underground wells. However, it has been linked to cause earthquakes. So now they're beginning to dispose of this wastewater, which is known as produced water. I think it sounds a lot better than it is. They're trying to dispose of this water in new ways. So yeah, what are some of these new ways, and if there are all these ways, then why is there no clear best way? Yeah, there's definitely so far not really a best way, I guess, to deposit this water, but now some oil companies are actually beginning to recycle and reuse this water over and over again, and imaginably that also has many environmental impacts. Yeah, so recycling produced water seems to be an effective method to reduce the harmful impacts this water has on the environment, and limit water use in general. The wastewater gets more and more toxic and contaminated over time. Definitely. Also, some companies are also beginning to dump this water straight into bodies of water. In 2021, it was discovered by researchers that over 50 permits were granted that allowed a total of 700 million gallons of wastewater to just be directly dumped into the creeks located near the Eagle Fork Jail. The regulators and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality are very encouraging of this new method, and they're just encouraging oil companies to continue to deposit millions of gallons of produced water in this way, but now scientists are starting to argue that while the impacts of this remain unknown, it should not continue. Yeah, and imaginably this can also be pretty harmful to wildlife and animals, so has there been research about that? Yeah, so apparently cattle were actually drinking from some of the creeks where the wastewater was dumped, so that's quite alarming and concerning, and this has definitely had impacts on animals and wildlife. Yeah, Texas doesn't really seem to monitor or regulate their fracking at all, really. Yes, I definitely agree with that. They're not really completely aware of all the pollution occurring in the Eagle Fork region, mainly because the monitoring of the air quality is so poor. They just need more regulation in general, and thousands of facilities in the Eagle Fork region, to be specific, also don't report their emissions to the authorities, so the amount of chemicals being released into the air is just pretty much unknown, and since fracking in the Eagle Fork region began, lawmakers have also cut the budget Texas has for environmental regulation by several hundred million, and I just think that pretty much sums up the current state in the Eagle Fork region. They're just drilling and drilling, and there's not really a lot of cleanup happening. Okay, how about the rest of the state? Is the government involved in the cleanup process of natural oil and gas wells in general? Well, yeah. I mean, ranchers have found oil and gas wells filled with polluted water along their ranch in these rural areas, and a lot of them are unsuccessful, meaning the fossil fuels don't get produced from the well, and the Texas Railroad Commission usually will clean these up, but due to a really awful loophole, they refuse to fill them up since they failed to produce oil, so they're technically not natural oil or gas wells, so these guys got to fill the wells up themselves. Yeah, and this is definitely quite expensive, and also on the state's part, I think it's kind of, I guess, unreasonable just because they didn't produce oil. They're still, like, leaking and, like, contaminated water, so the state's basically just like, oh, since this is not, like, a natural oil or gas well, we're just not going to clean it up. Yeah, I mean, I think it shows a real lack of responsibility, the fact that they make this mess, and then they make you pay $20,000 to a million dollars to clean it up. Annabelle, I know you've done some research on how this relates to justice, and could you tell us maybe a bit more about that? Well, David, it's tied into justice because it is negatively affecting people, especially in population-dense areas, and the community has no say in fracking, and they don't get to speak out on their opinion. Yeah, and within even those spaces, how are the demographics being impacted? Is it equal? And probably not, but why is it not equal? Well, of course, people living in densely populated areas are being impacted more than those living in low-population areas, but besides that, people near fracking sites are being unfairly impacted, because according to a paper written by Science Direct, although there isn't a direct causation, there is a correlation in living near fracking sites. Yeah, I think we can agree that the solution is to monitor it better and more equitably, you know? And Stanford University, interestingly enough, seems to have a solution that they've been proposing as of earlier this year. Do you think you can tell us about that? Yeah, sure. So actually, Stanford University has been pretty interested in this problem, and they sort of developed this, like, more, I guess, equitable system to clear up a lot of, like, confusion around fracking in general. And this new system tracks, you know, the climate, population density, and the likelihood of earthquakes. So in general, they're just, with this new, like, I guess, approach or, like, technique, a lot of people are less confused about fracking and the environmental impacts. And so it clears up the confusion, sorry, can you clarify, for nearby residents? Yeah, definitely, but also even just, like, the operators and the facilities themselves. Because fracking is such a complex issue and process, a lot of, just in general, even operators themselves are kind of, like, confused about what's happening. And, you know, since this new system helps clean up a lot of the confusion with these problems. Yeah, so we can, so now really what we can do is just hope that it gets adopted. Definitely. Yeah. So basically, to conclude everything that's been summarized, fracking is an ongoing environmental issue, and its environmental impacts are still in effect today. By exploring fracking in Texas, specifically in the Eagle Ford region, we hope you have learned new knowledge on this controversial underground oil and gas removal method. Well, it's been great, and thank you guys for having me here on the podcast. Yeah, yeah, it was awesome to have you here. We can be with you later, don't you think? Yeah. Yeah. All right, bye. Bye. And that was the Get a Life with us podcast. I bet you can see why.