Two months ago, the Dan A. Hughes Oil Company dropped its plans to drill an exploratory well adjacent to the Golden Gates Estates development in Collier County in Southwest Florida. That was big news to environmental activists throughout the state who feared that Hughes Oil was considering using an "enhanced extraction" procedure considered synonymous with fracking, the controversial procedure that extracts oil and natural gas out of the ground by injecting large volumes of various mixes of water, sand and chemicals deep underground, at extreme pressure, to create fractures in targeted rock formations.
So at the moment, there is no fracking going on in Florida. But while that technology hasn't been employed here, it's been used for years in the Northeast, Texas, and in Western states like South Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming. Yet there have been concerns all along about its safety, because of the potential for the extracted gas to leak into the drinking water supply.
A report published on Monday found no evidence that fractured shale led to water contamination. The New York Times reports that the study said cement used to seal the outside of the vertical wells, or steel tubing used to line them, is the culprit, leading to gas leaking up the wells and into aquifers.
But environmental activists, led by actor Mark Ruffalo, are citing another report published today by the group Food & Water Watch that posits that fracking presents a host of problems, such as:
"Any plan to address climate change that includes relying on fracked gas is simply not credible," says Wenonah Hauter, the Executive Director of Food & Water Watch, the nonprofit group that produced the report, called "The Urgent Case for a Ban on Fracking." She said that the writers of the study reviewed over 150 studies that have been released in the past three years on fracking.
-Producing massive volumes of toxic and radioactive waste. The unregulated disposal of this waste is causing earthquakes and putting drinking water resources at risk.
-Pumping hazardous pollutants into the air. Fracking utilizes over 100 dangerous chemicals known to cause life-threatening illnesses, including cancer.
-Destabilizing the climate. Fracking wells release large amounts of methane gas, which is known to trap 87 times more heat than carbon in the atmosphere and contributes greatly to global warming.
-Disrupting local communities. Fracking presents a broad number of consequences for people living in areas where it is occurring, including damage to public roads, declines in property value, increased crime and an increased demand on emergency services.
-Turning homes into explosive hazards. Contaminating water wells with methane and other flammable gases from fracking puts families’ health, safety and property at high risk.
-Causing thousands of accidents, leaks and spills. More than 7,500 accidents related to fracking occurred in 2013, negatively impacting water quality in rivers, streams and shallow aquifers.
"There's no evidence in the independent scientific literature that says that this problem is either preventable or fixable," says Dr. Sandra Steingraber, a scientist at Ithaca College in New York. She cited the fact that Germany has currently put a moratorium on the use of fracking technology because of the risky technology as a reason why the U.S. should adopt such a policy.
Methane is the main component of natural gas, which is a problem in that it's a potent greenhouse gas, with 30 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. The report states that leaky wells lead to aquifers being contaminated with methane and other hydrocarbon gases.
"We must end extreme fossil fuel exploration extraction and combustion including fracking and the climate crippling methane it leaks, " said actor Mark Ruffalo, a fierce critic of fracking. He said that ending fracking need not mean taking an economic hit or losing jobs, as the country can start "moving forward with clean energy."
Ruffalo said that's the message he'll be taking to the streets of Manhattan this Sunday, when he will join thousands in what is being billed as a major protest in New York City for climate change. Organizers claim it will be the biggest climate march in history.