Fracking involves drilling, then cracking the rocks with small explosions, maintaining the cracks by injecting sand and high pressure (up to 15,000 psi) fluids, and collecting the gas that seeps out.
There are many charming features associated with fracking, including blowouts and minor earthquakes, but the major problem is contamination of ground water. The US Environmental Protection Agency found arsenic, copper, vanadium and adamantes (a form of hydrocarbon) in water near fracking, although, having been emasculated by George Dubya, they were coy about attributing causality to the fracking.
A number of toxic chemicals, including carcinogens, are used in the fracking process.
Reports that it was possible to set fire to tap water due to shale gas getting in to the water, although impressive, have been vigorously challenged, on the basis of one sample, which showed the gas had biological origin.
Whatever the truth of inflammable tapwater, it is very clear that the risks of fracking in the Mendips is contamination of the vast, interlinked underwater reservoirs. Mendip limestone has more holes than a Swiss cheese. It is a famous centre for caving, and is also an underground reservoir for Bath, Bristol and Weston-super-Mare.
It is unlikely that citizen pressure can stop the initial exploratory drilling. An intense campaign would be necessary to prevent the local councils witholding planning permission for the actual fracking, because councils tend to roll over and let large companies tickle their tummies. Past experience suggests that Somerset folk are not up for intense campaigns, especially as the local newspapers will most likely be giving blanket coverage to the safety and job-creation opportunities of this wonderful new way of producing carbon dioxide.
The best strategy would be for us to press councils to insist that Eden Energy and UK Methane (the gas companies) take out full insurance for remediation of any ground water contamination that follows from their process. This is reasonable, and the costs involved (assuming they can get an insurance company to take them on) will likely make the process uneconomic, because ground water contamination could go on for decades.
I have phoned my District Councillor, who had heard nothing about it on the council.
There is a Facebook page - No Fracking UK - for campaigners here.
One of the counter arguments that will come out is that if we have a large amount of renewable energy in the UK, it will need to be supplemented with a fleet of gas turbines to cover the times when the wind stops. The alternative to this is (a) large amounts of storage capacity, primarily hydro-electric, but also electrolytic, and (b) a Europe wide HVDC supergrid which will connect all renewable sources, overriding individual intermittencies.
[Update] I have been given the coordinates by Government, below]
PEDL225
The licensed area is bounded by the coordinates:
ST 5000 5000
ST 6000 5000
ST 6000 4500
ST 7000 4500
ST 7000 3500
ST 6000 3500
ST 6000 4000
ST 5000 4000
ST 5000 5000.
PEDL226
The licensed area is bounded by the coordinates:
ST 5000 7000
ST 6000 7000
ST 6000 5000
ST 5000 5000
ST 5000 7000.
PEDL227
The licensed area is bounded by the coordinates:
ST 6000 6000
ST 7000 6000
ST 7000 4500
ST 6000 4500
ST 6000 6000.
PEDL228
The licensed area is bounded by the coordinates:
ST 6000 7000
ST 7000 7000
ST 7000 6000
ST 6000 6000
ST 6000 7000.
The OS maps I hold just cover PEDL 225 & 226.
225 is a region including Wells, Evercreech and Pilton.
226 covers Flax bourton, Hengrove, Chewton Mendip and Westbury Beacon.
I do not have maps for the other areas.
They are pretty vast areas. I guess they will be doing sonar geological studies to map out the area. It is clear that the areas include limestone areas of the Mendip Hills.
2 comments:
Blog owner approval - ah - don't acre for debate eh?
Typical.
Gordon I had to go for approval due to massive amount of spam.
Anyway, if you want to debate something, what is the point of a fence post tortoise?
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