Frackers use dangerous chemicals without disclosure due to Halliburton loophole
insideclimatenews.org
insideclimatenews.org
Max Ingredient Concentration in HydroFracture Fluid for water (% by mass): 91.0
Max Ingredient Concentration in HF Fluid for silica (% by mass): 8.6
Gallon of water weight (lbs./gal): 8.34
Barrel (bbl) = 42 gallons
Total weight of water (lbs.) = TBV * Gallon of water weight = 137,522,030
Total weight of frac job (lbs.) = Total weight of Water/Water concentration in frac = 137,522,030 / (91.0/100) = 151,123,110
Proppant weight, Silica, (lbs.) = 151,123,110 * (8.6/100) = 12,996,588
Barrels of water = 16,489,452 / 42 = 392,606
So, 99.6% of the frac job is sand (or something like it) and water. The rest is "chemicals". Of course, this number varies wildly based on recipe - 92-99% is usually the range. You would figure out the other chemicals the same way. Problem is percentages could be in percentage or decimal format and/or those numbers could just be straight up wrong, or you aren't provided other info that is relevant in the calc.
That said, I don't think this story is very objective in that it unduly pushes the buttons of people who are chemical-phobic and that makes matters worse.
Here, ethylene glycol (aka MEG—mono ethylene glycol) is held up as a bogeyman without a satisfactorily explanation of why.
When or if MEG gets into the water table how much damage would it do? How much would a person likely consume in say the course of a year and how dangerous would it be? I can't answer that directly as I simply don't have the leakage figures so let's look at MEG's known dangers.
MEG is antifreeze that you put in your car engine and it is dangerous if consumed, and it doesn't take much to kill you about 50 to 100ml (a wineglass full if it's concentrated — in antifreeze it's quite diluted). It's also sweet and to deter kids from drinking it, it has Bitrex/denatonium added to make it extremely bitter.
OK, it's nasty stuff but what happens when you consume it? Well, it breaks down into oxalic acid and that's what's dangerous about it as oxalic acid is poisonous. But how much so? It just so happens that oxalic acid ocurrs naturally in the leaves of many green vegetables such as spinich, its concentrations are so high in rhubarb leaves that we're told only to eat the stems.
The point is that trace amounts of MEG won't do us harm because we're used to normally consuming somewhat more than just trace amounts of oxalic acid in our food.
A much greater danger to health are the aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene which is definitely toxic and carcinogenic but you'll notice it doesn't head the list in this article because much less of it is released during fracking. But small amounts aren't as noteworthy as the large amount of MEG released even though it likely poses a much greater health risk over the long run.
This is why many articles of this type are both misleading and harmful. They not only distort the facts but they also give the frackers and their ilk ammunition to dismiss reports of their unacceptable activities as being inaccurate and or groundless.
You're right about the amount of water used, where I am in Australia fracking is very controversial not only because of the water usage (this is a very dry country) but also that fracking sites were on some of the best farming land in the country.
"We also have a lot of farmers and ranchers picking up the oil and gas royalty income in the U.S."
For many, it's probably a pragmatic decision and a guarantee of income in bad seasons. I don't think it's that different here although many farmers have objected, especially in Queensland's Darling Downs which has some of the best farming land in the country as I mentioned. These links fill in the details, it's quite tragic really:
https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/australia-existi...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-14/coal-seam-gas-wells-d...
What's really annoying is that the multinationals are exporting the gas at high world prices and we have to pay parity—and even then there's a shortage here especially in the populated South-East. Locals, pay huge gas and electricity prices even though we've an abundance. It's maddening but understandable as in this so-called democracy the corporations essentially run the place.
"...it is potable for animals but not safe for human consumption, it'swe will eventually eat them."
This is quite outrageous really, especially if those chemicals include traces of aromatic and chlorinated hydrocarbons as they aren't necessarily broken down in animals so they're passed onto us. You'll get the concern that many here have from those links.
As you probably know, the equivalent to your formation waters here is the Great Artesian Basin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Artesian_Basin. It too is under assault, read the section on 'Environmental Concerns'.
It's all quite depressing really.