Marian – the Rolling Stone article seemed more a personal attack on Chesapeake’s Aubrey McClendon and his lifestyle… he certainly doesn’t need me defending him. As far as the industry accusations, for lack of a better term, no doubt many are true. But let’s step back. Observe that there have been 36,000 shale wells drilled in the US in the last half century and most all of them have been hydraulically fractured. Relatively recently (since the mid-1980s), horizontal drilling, combined with hydraulic fracturing stimulation, has come into play such that almost 75% of the wells drilled in the US are now horizontal. In a heavy industry with this much activity, there is no doubt mishaps have and will occur. But that doesn’t condemn the whole practice.
Frac fluid itself is 98% water, 1% sand and 1% ‘other’. Most articles of this sort refer to the ‘1% other’ as ‘toxic chemicals’. Of course, you likely have several toxic chemicals under your kitchen sink or in the laundry room. By way of examples, in the past, diesel fuel has been used as part of the 1% ‘other’. A substance used in making ice cream – guar gum – is a very common additive to frac fluid and, thus, another so-called ‘toxic chemical’:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Oil-boom-eating-up-ice-cream-ingredient-3683129.php
Once well drilling moved out of traditional areas, fracing became very controversial largely due to the population being uneducated. Also, regulations and infrastructure were not ready. The O&G E&P industry did a very bad PR job in these new areas and are living to pay for it. In some instances, the industry has been tarred by one bad apple spoiling the whole bunch.
IMO, the article, I must say, was thoroughly researched and well-written. Frankly, I ask, “Is this all you could find.” I’m not being facetious. Fresh water aquifers and drinking water are very precious and must be protected.
I could go on, but suffice to say that w/o hydraulic fracturing there would be very few ‘unconventional’ shale gas wells drilled. Unconventional shale gas production makes up over 25% of what we consume every day.
Yes, fracing applies to oil wells too.
Chesapeake itself has a very good tutorial web site that explains fracturing (video) and other aspects of natural gas, their specialty: http://www.chk.com/NaturalGas/Pages/default.aspx
(See, CHK is not all bad.)
Hope this helps. Later – Buzz