Fracking Coming to a County Near You

Fracking is a relatively new process used by the gas exploration industry in order to extract gas from geological areas of shale deposits.  Until recently I wasn't aware that I lived in such a geological area myself. Two companies have been granted an onshore petroleum license in my local region.

So what do we get out of it as a community? The two companies granted licenses are not Irish based so Ireland will not benefit from the profits. It seems the jobs created are highly specialised and so employment levels of any real significance will be not be gained here. Indeed, two very important areas of employment in the region are tourism and agriculture. Both of these are likely to suffer a significant blow even if the fracking goes without a hitch. Who would want to visit a landscape dotted with massive concrete extraction pads every couple of kilometres, toxic settlement ponds and rig towers? The thousands of lorries that would trundle along the local roads would not exactly be a picture of peace and tranquility.

You might ask what I mean't when I mentioned the word 'hitch' in the previous paragraph. Well it doesn't take too long when you google the word Fracking to find a lot of concern about very serious environmental issues surrounding it. After weighing up both the evidence of environmental pollution and it's possible threat to life and considering the as yet unknown long term impacts (as this is a very new technology) other countries and regions have banned the process. Polluted ground water will find it's way into waterways, humans, plants and animals. Polluted water travelling from the North West of Ireland along the River Shannon flows through many other regions before it reaches the ocean 386km from its source. That means whatever happens will impact not only the people on the fracking doorstep.

I'm only just scratching the surface here on the issue. If you'd like to find out more about Fracturing watch a movie called Gaslands, click to watch the trailer or have a look on the What The Frack website. For a balanced view also see what Tamboran have to say, perhaps you'll feel that maybe Fracking is a good thing. Or an informative Drivetime short radio documentary. Take your pic and share your thoughts....

Comments

[Jim Burfield]

The coming of fracking to Ireland is a huge worry. There are a large number of ongoing lawsuits in the US, at present, with regard to the pollution of groundwater that fracking has caused.

Not to mention the fact that dragging every last ounce of carbon out the ground in any form, just so that we can burn it, is plain stupid.

With global warming's threat becoming ever more apparent, it makes no sense what-so-ever to be countenancing such a high risk form of energy extraction, anywhere.

Massive investment in renewables is the only way to go.

[Moonwaves]

On a different topic, I just noticed that boards.ie now has a smallholding section. I haven't been on boards for a few years but nice to see they've been moving with the times as well.

[Rebecca]

... and we haven't even mentioned the possible links of provoked seismic activity with fracking.

[Keith]

I'm on the fence re Fracking (and I have a smallholding in one of the areas targetted for fracking), and am in the process of getting myself informed.

There are few enough issues with tectonic activity noted. Certainly it seems no more than for geothermal. The recent tectonic activity in the UK around the test drill is kind of a case in point. It's small, hasn't caused any real damage, and represents no threat to life.

The main issues with fracking (apart from the fact that it's another fossil fuel) seem to come from three situations, sometimes linked.

Cracking or compromise of the collar on the drill shaft, generally due to neglect or errors in installation. Good practice, good regulations are solution to this.

Cowboy operators failing to follow best practice. Good regulation, a rigorous licence and inspection regime, and a regulator with teeth would also help with this.

There can be issues with storage of the backflow water too, and, some reports not some issues with methane leaks due to difficult to map geological formations. But the few reports I've read indicate this is probably a minority of complaints. That said, I'm not confident I've got to grips with the backflow water storage problems yet. Possible solutions here involve recycling the water centrally, or onsite, for reuse, or the use of well licenced and regulated diposal contractors. I'm still not up to speed on how efficacious these solutions could be.

The New York moratorium on fracking is due to be reviewed in 2012 I think, timed to conincide with the due date on an EPA report, based upon which the ban/moratorium will be reviewed.

I don't know much about the French ban yet.

My impression from reading so far is that there is not yet enough hard data to make a hard and fast case, that a lot of the extant cases where complaints have been made could have been avoided with best practice in place.

The carbon footprint of gas got from fracking is much higher than that of gas got from conventional means (there has been some good work done on approximating this), but the industry's argument is that the emissions are lower than for burning oil, and for burning coal, and that shale gas should be thought of as a bridging energy supply, which, though far higher than renewables, offers an opportunity to lower carbon footprint by replacing oil and gas.

I watched gaslands, and was unimpressed. It's a nice documentary, made by a passionate person. But it has no data. No hard information.

At the moment, my take is that there's not quite enough data yet to answer all the questions. Although some of the problems already identified ( collar issues, cowboy contractors) are fairly easy to deal with when tackled competently, there's not yet ebnnough data on methane contamination, and on issues to do with interlinked geological formations.

[writer jobs]

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