The Costs of Fracking

and gas wells across the country—despite
persistent questions about the impact of
the technology and supporting activities
on the environment, public health and
communities.
Roughy half of U.S. states, stretching
from New York to California, sit atop shale
or other rock formations with the potential
to produce oil or gas using fracking. As
fracking has made oil and gas extraction
viable in more of these formations, it is
bringing drilling closer to greater numbers
of people as well as precious natural
resources.
• Between 2003 and 2010, more than
11,000 wells were drilled in the Fort
Worth basin of Texas’ Barnett Shale
formation. 7 The Barnett Shale underlies
one of the most populous regions
of the state—the Dallas-Fort Worth
Metroplex—and drilling has taken
place in urban and suburban neighborhoods
of the region.
• In Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale,
more than 6,300 shale gas wells have
been drilled since 2000; permits
have been issued that would allow
for more than 2,400 additional wells
to be drilled. 8 A 2011 analysis by
PennEnvironment Research & Policy
Center found that 104 day care centers
and 14 schools in Pennsylvania were
located within a mile of a shale gas
well; that figure is certainly higher
today. 9
• In Colorado, fracking has taken off
in the oil-producing Niobrara Shale
formation. Weld County, Colorado,
located just north of Denver and just
east of Fort Collins, has seen the permitting
of more than 1,300 horizontal
wells since the beginning of 2010. 10
Oil and gas companies are aggressively
seeking to expand fracking to places where
more people live (including the city of
Dallas) and to treasured natural areas (including
the Delaware River Basin, which
provides drinking water for 15 million
people). Wherever this new gas rush is
allowed, it will impose significant impacts
on the environment, public health and
communities. To add insult to injury, these
impacts also come with heavy price tags
that will all too often be borne by individual
residents and their communities. The
following section of this report provides a
breakdown of fracking impacts along with
examples of the real-life costs already being
imposed on America’s environment and
our communities.
Fracking: The Process and its Impacts 11