Do you ever wonder how we obtain the materials to power our day-to-day life? Gasoline and refined crude oil for our cars, airplanes, and trains along with heating our homes all power our lives daily. The answer is hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as fracking. This is one of a handful of forms of oil extraction used mostly in Canada and starting to extend to Asia, Europe, and South America. While very effective at gathering oil, this process is detrimental to life in surrounding areas and fracking companies will overstep and extract from cultural lands. Fracking presents serious dangers to human health, the water table, and finally, wrongfully using private, religious land. Since fracking has very limited testing data, it cannot be justified and should be made illegal.

What is fracking, and how does it work? Well, according to American Rivers it is a technique that injects millions of gallons of water, chemicals, and sand underground using drills. The sand is used to keep the fractures open so that gas or oil can leak from the cracks efficiently. Hydraulic fracturing fluids can be diesel fuel, acids, and even acetone. Fracking is done at a very high pressure to make fractures in the bedrock so that the natural gas and oil can escape and be collected. This process is performed in various geologic formations including coal beds, shale plays, and previously drilled wells.

Photo: Marusic

Here is an image showing how fracking is done, and as you can see, the water table is directly above the steel pipe, risking contamination of drinking water for thousands.

What can probably be inferred from the process of fracking is that communities in surrounding areas to active wells are in danger of consuming byproducts resulting in declining health. Environmental Health News conducted research on the issue and found that “the most evidence for concern are negative impacts on pregnancy and birth outcomes.” Women living within close quarters to fracking sites have “increased odds of having a baby with lower-than-average birth weight; of having a high-risk pregnancy; or having a baby with a low infant health index” (Marusic).

Furthermore, as the climate changes and global temperatures rise, the risk of a fetus being born with congenital heart defects increases due to extreme heat exposure during the early weeks of the pregnancy increases (Waters Kraus & Paul). Through inhalation, skin absorption, and contaminated drinking water, these chemicals enter the body and damage mothers and their fetuses. Air pollution is responsible for “13 percent of deaths in people aged 14 or older in the United States” (Milman). Along with birth defects, people can also develop severe headaches and asthma issues. These are a result of dangerous petroleum hydrocarbons, such as benzene and xylene, that are released during the fracking process (Marusic). In 2018, globally, air pollution took 8.7 million lives; 1 in 5 of all people who died that year (Milman). Primarily, those who are affected are children and older people, those with low incomes and people of color. So, fracking is not only causing infants to be born rather weak and unhealthy, but people living in urban areas, seniors and young people are being affected by the process.

Fracking not only contributes to human health dangers, but it is also responsible for  environmental damage. Following extraction of the oil or gas during hydraulic fracturing, the chemicals used to leak into the waterbed poison the water supply for thousands. This shouldn’t even be happening, according to BBC News; if done correctly, the drills should be going far deeper than the water-bearing rocks (Harrabin). Contamination occurs when the drill hole goes through the water-bearing rock. The borehole should be properly cased in order to avoid leaks into the aquifer (water-bearing rocks). These mistakes tended to happen much more during fracking’s earlier days in the United States. As a result of this, surrounding areas have complained about the “high levels of the carcinogen benzene in underground water supplies as a result” (Harrabin). Researchers found evidence that water pollution, air pollution, and soil contamination caused by the industry have been linked to adverse health impacts through both exposures to toxic chemicals released during fracking, and through heightened stress and anxiety caused by the increased light, noise, and truck traffic.

Furthermore, methane gas, a very prevalent byproduct of fracking, is seventy-two times stronger than carbon dioxide and stays in the atmosphere for fifty years. It has been shown that any leakage over 4% of methane gas is considered dangerous; in the LA basin, fracking industries are leaking up to 17% methane vapor (Planet Rehab). With millions of people breathing in methane, xylene, acetone, benzene and more, it is unknown how many in all are being affected by the dangers of fracking. This process does not discriminate; whether you are rich, poor, black or white, the dangers of fracking persist and jeopardize the health of millions worldwide.

This diagram shows what is responsible for methane emissions, and as you can see, natural gas and petroleum systems are responsible for 31%.

While fracking companies are dangerous to the environment and surrounding communities, they are also morally corrupt and careless to the land they select for extraction. For hundreds of years, indigenous people have been ignored, exploited, and taken advantage of; when it comes to fracking, there are no disparities. On federal Native American reservations, only federal and tribal laws apply to the members of the tribe unless Congress says otherwise (Indian Affairs). In other words, this makes it very easy for crime to run rampant through reservations. Due to the swarms of new people coming to the reservation for jobs working the oil rigs, it puts the native communities at risk and the police departments in these areas have a very hard time prosecuting said crime. During the summer of 2012, when a tribal officer was finishing up her shift, she encountered a frenzied-looking sixteen-year-old girl who told her hysterically that she had been raped. She was not a member of the tribe; she had run away from her home in Texas to find her father who was working in the oil fields, who refused to let her stay with him. After a night out, a white man took her back to his trailer and raped her. But, since he was a white man who was not a member of the tribe, Officer Cummings could not continue the investigation (Crane-Murdoch). This was a result of the Oliphant V. Suquamish Supreme Court case which “stripped tribes of the right to arrest and prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes on Indian land” (Crane-Murdoch). But, directly harming individuals living on the reservation isn’t the only damage being done to natives.

Families in rural areas near Counselor, New Mexico were noticing sickly and dead snakes above the ground during the winter months. Underground vibrations from fracking were driving snakes from their dens and onto the surface to die from exposure. Furthermore, vegetation was dying off and the climate was becoming drier. In more recent days, the US Bureau of Land Management is considering a plan which would lease the land of the Navajo and Puebloan Lands for around three thousand new wells. The plan would extend into some of New Mexico’s last available public lands “threatening the desecration of sacred Native artifacts near Chaco Canyon while bringing in a swath of new public health risks to a place that’s already reeling from one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in the world” (Nelson). The Chaco Canyon has been inhabited by Native people for thousands of years; they have implemented Great Houses, ancient roads, and many other archeological sites. Archeologists have just barely started to understand these lands, and digging them up for oil and gas collection would be detrimental to understanding the history of these ancient sites.

How can we ban fracking? Kassie Siegel, the director of the Climate Law Institution believes that “Banning fracking is one of the most important steps the next president can take to protect our country” (Matthews). It is simply because fracking enables the extraction of oil and gas that we can’t afford to lose. The oil industry is now pushing out twelve million barrels of oil per day, eight million of those barrels being from shale-oil (fracking) companies. Taking a look at the consequences of the ban, if it were to go into effect, shale-oil production would be down by more than a third after the first year. After a second year, it would be down 55%. Oil prices would be tripling which could trigger global economic shock (Matthews). A solution to this is right after the ban programs are implemented to speed up the production of clean technologies. In her interview with journalist Christopher Matthews, Kassie Siegel stresses that  “Government policies that drive a rapid transition to clean-energy technology can create the largest economic stimulus since World War II.” Along with this, reinstating the crude-oil export ban would also help to avoid prices skyrocketing as a result of oil and gas restrictions.

Fracking companies do not take any measures to limit the byproducts of the hydraulic fracturing process, and they also don’t have the means to check water and air quality since testing is very expensive. Called “sacrificed zones,” areas, after fracking has finished, have been left unlivable; the water table is completely poisoned, land has been cleared for access roads, and drilling wells have left the land polluted and empty. For areas further away from fracking zones there aren’t any regulations made by the federal government to perform any kind of testing, so these communities are left in the dark when it comes to what is being pumped into their backyards and rivers (NRDC). People are being harmed by the sudden influx of oil workers, decreasing the safeness of the communities that families have inhabited for decades. Ancient archeological sites are being dug up. Babies are being born with lower health indexes, and people are experiencing issues breathing. Fracking is doing nothing but harm to the people, and to the environment.

Works Cited

American Rivers “Fracking, Oil, and Gas Development.” American Rivers Association,

www.americanrivers.org/threats-solutions/energy-development/fracking/?gclid=CjwKCAiAsNKQBhAPEiwAB-I5zTBGWZx0cIsZbgrT7PYVi3Kc1Ho1dKKZQkjyZHCJBccMSAPS5PGurxoCtuwQAvD_BwE. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022

Crane-Murdoch, Sierra. “On Indian Land, Criminals Can Get Away With Almost Anything.” The Atlantic, 22 Feb. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/02/on-indian-land -criminals-can-get-away-with-almost-anything/273391/. Accessed 9 Mar. 2022

Harrabin, Roger. “Does fracking affect the water supply?” BBC News, 6 Oct. 2016,www.bbc.com/news/uk-37578189#:~:text=Fracking%20can%20contaminate%20water%20supplies,be%20released%20often%20contains%20chemicals.&text=If%20the%20borehole%20is%20not,can%20escape%20into%20the%20aquifer. Accessed 9 Mar. 2022.

Indian Affairs “Frequently Asked Questions.” U.S. Department of the Interior: Indian Affairs, www.bia.gov/frequently-asked-questions#:~:text=As%20U.S.%20citizens%2C%20American%20Indians,tribe%2C%20unless%20Congress%20provides%20otherwise. Accessed 9 Mar. 2022.

Marusic, Kristina. “After a Decade of Research, Here’s What Scientists Know about the Health Impacts of Fracking.” Environmental Health News, 15 Apr. 2019, www.ehn.org/health-impacts-of-fracking-2634432607.html. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.

Matthews, Christopher M. “What Would Happen if the U.S. Banned Fracking?” The Wall Street Journal, 19 Nov. 2019, www.wsj.com/articles/what-would-happen- if-the-u-s-banned-fracking-11574208146.Accessed 9 Mar. 2022.

Milman, Oliver. “‘Invisible killer’: fossil fuels caused 8.7m deaths globally in 2018, research finds.” The Guardian, 9 Feb. 2021, www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/09/ fossil-fuels-pollution-deaths-research. Accessed 23 Mar. 2022.

Nelson, Cody. “‘Their Greed Is gonna Kill Us.'” The Guardian, 10 June 2020, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/10/new-mexico-fracking-navajo-indian-country. Accessed 9 Mar. 2022.

NRDC “Reduce Fracking Health Hazards.” Natural Resources Defense Council, www.nrdc.org/issues/reduce-fracking-health-hazards#:~:text=Fracking%20sites%20release%20a%20toxic,are%20known%20to%20cause%20cancer. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.

Planet Rehab “Hydraulic Fracturing.” Planet Rehab, www.planetrehab.org/ clean-energy.html?gclid=CjwKCAiAsNKQBhAPEiwAB-I5zYWC07-Hx7UhdUl5unspUZMvvsxwq34nFgJhWxQ3Kb3lvHyOxt0JFxoCWvsQAvD_BwE. Accessed 9 Mar. 2022.

Waters Kraus & Paul “Fracking: A Contributor to Climate Change and Birth Defects.” waterskrauspaul, 20 Jan. 2021,waterskraus.com/fracking-contributor-climate-change- birth-defects/#:~:text=Birth%20Defects%20Linked%20to%20Chemicals%20Associated%20with%20Fracking&text=With%20over%2015%20million%20Americans,contaminated%20drinking%20water%2C%20or%20inhalation. Accessed 8 Mar.2022.