Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Study Says Fracking is Safe In Theory But Often Not In Practice

Posted by samzenpus on from the are-you-sure-you're-using-that-right? dept.

First time accepted submitter chadenright writes "A university study asserts that the problems caused by the gas extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking,' arise because drilling operations aren't doing it right. The process itself isn't to blame, according to the study, released today by the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin."

1 of 297 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Frak! by pavon · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article stated that one of the main problems was bad cementing jobs, but from what I've gathered from reading and talking is that it is really hard to get a good cement job. There are things you can do to screw it up, but even if you do everything by the book, you can still end up with an imperfect seal. According to the US U.S. Minerals Management Service, cementing problems were associated with 18 of 39 blowouts between 1992 and 2006.

    So, if doing fraking "right" requires you to have perfect cement jobs everytime, then it isn't possible to do fraking right.