> Given that fracking usually happens 10,000 feet underground, and far below any water table
Ok so why are the fracking chemicals being found in groundwater and giving people cancer?
Ok so why are the fracking chemicals being found in groundwater and giving people cancer?
It's not always permeable. It's more of a design issue because well completion is not a science, it's more of a process of optimizing production vs cost. You're not going to just use the thickest strongest metal there is everywhere.
> Therefore it's much more likely that a fracked well will contaminate layers above the production layer, right? Not to mention the fracking fluid contains extra materials which are likely the cause of any deleterious health effects.
Not necessarily. There's layers of permeable and effectively impermeable rock, depending on the fluid. Typical fracking depths are well below groundwater layers and separated by impermeable layers. Shale for example, is so tight that basically only methane flows through it because it's the smallest hydrocarbon. Fracking fluids (ex. water) + extra materials (such as sand, isopropyl alcohol) are used precisely because they can't flow through, build up pressure, and then physically create fractures in the production layer. The fluid can get lost as the rock fractures more and pressure drops, but this is monitored and again, is well below groundwater depth.