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Fracking Boom Byproduct: Air Quality Decline
With the fracking boom in places like Colorado’s Weld County and
across the nation, there’s another byproduct: bad air. A study to be
published in the Journal of Geophysics Research finds that fumes from oil
and gas development are a big reason the Front Range has unhealthy
levels of ozone, especially in the summertime.
Texas Regulators Prepare Major Drilling Rule Changes
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the controversial process of
shooting water, sand and chemicals underground to access oil or natural
gas trapped in shale rock, has made plenty of headlines in recent years.
But the drilling process involves many other steps beyond breaking up
rock, and several opportunities for things to go wrong.
Drilling spills reaching Colorado groundwater; state mulls test
rules
Oil and gas have contaminated groundwater in 17 percent of the
2,078 spills and slow releases that companies reported to state regulators
over the past five years, state data show.
Fissures appear in scientists’ assurances about safety of fracking
When the research team from the University of Texas at Austin took
the stage at the Vancouver Convention Centre early this year, they knew
they had a big audience.
Journalists from around the world were attending the prestigious
American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting
and many of them had come to the press conference, where a new study
on the environmental impacts of fracking was to be released.
Environment: Traces of Deepwater Horizon oil causes
deformities, swimming deficencies in Gulf fish
FRISCO — In yet another sign that BP’s spilled Deepwater Horizon
may have long-lasting impacts on Gulf ecosystems, a team of researchers
said last week that even low-level, short-term exposure to traces of oil
remnants causes deformities and impairs the swimming ability of fish.
Lawmakers seek inquiry on sheen near spill site