First, let’s clear up the minor points that make it clear the environmental groups and media lack any reasonable understanding of the hydro fracturing procedure. These two groups spell the procedure “Fracking”. The term is short for hydrofracturing. There is no “k” in this industry term. Nonetheless, in this post, we’ll adopt their spelling to avoid any confusion about whether or not “fracing” and “fracking” are two different processes. Whichever spelling is used, it refers to the same process.

Second, environmental and media groups present this process as a new technology. The oil and gas industry has been fracking wells since the 1940s. Hundreds of thousands of wells have been fracked in the U.S. over the last 66 years. If fracking is such a threat to geological stability and drinking water, why are we just hearing about it now?

Prior to the development of hydrofracturing, the oil and gas industry lowered nitroglycerine to the bottom of a drilled well. A heavy weight, called a “torpedo”, was then dropped on a wire line into the hole. When the torpedo struck the container of nitroglycerine, a massive underground explosion created a huge cavern in the oil/gas bearing formation. This was referred to as “shooting the well”. During the time this procedure was used, claims of fresh groundwater contamination were not registered. This procedure was used before the technology to cement steel casing in order to isolate the vertical migration of formation fluids. This is another fact that should seat itself in the minds of thinking people.

From the beginning of land settlement to the present, rural America depended on hand-dug wells to supply the water required to sustain human habitation of the land. On average, these wells were 20 to 30 feet deep. Throughout this time, the outhouse was a feature of rural life for most of us, and still is today for many rural Americans. I came across a “house for sale” add in a rural newspaper recently that featured a rural house with a “path to bath”. The outhouse served as a way to isolate the deadly bacteria-rich byproducts of the human digestion by digging a hole in the ground approximately 3 feet deep and placing the outhouse over the hole. Although the contents of the outhouse hole were only 17 to 30 vertical feet above the ground layer that provided residential drinking water, this never posed a threat that concerned environmental or governmental agencies. Bear in mind that the near-surface layers of rock, clay, and dirt are soft, unconsolidated material, more likely to facilitate vertical migration of fluids.

In more modern times many outhouses have been replaced with single residence sewer systems that consist of a septic tank for solid waste and a lateral field of clay pipes that allow the liquid components of the sewage to be absorbed underground in the top three to four feet of the land. Most counties even require a percolation test (“perk test”) to assure that the ground is capable of absorbing the liquid sewage into the ground. Also in modern times, wells are more often drilled to fresh water formations, rather than digging them by hand. Fresh and usable water is usually encountered 20 to 120 feet below the surface. In this modern age of water testing and monitoring, the 20 to120 feet of rock layers that separate the sewage absorbed in the near surface soils from the drinking water is considered safe. This system is relied upon by millions of Americans living in rural areas of the U.S. today.

Now let’s talk about fracking of oil and gas wells.The oil and gas wells that are the subject of the fracking debate are drilled to a vertical depth of one to two miles below the surface of the earth. At that point, the drill bit is steered to proceed a horizontal distance of one to two miles laterally. Water encountered in the vertical part of the well a few hundred feet below surface is salt water that contains heavy metals and other toxic substances rendering it totally unfit for human use and consumption.  Any chemicals injected into these deep underground water bearing formations may actually improve the quality of this saltwater in some minor way, but it is still in no way usable.

A typical well has one to two miles of very hard solid rock formations that separate the fracked formations from any usable water formations that exist above them.  Human sewage is separated from drinking water by about 30 feet of rock, yet environmentalists and government regulators seem to argue that a mile of impermeable rock in an oil or gas well bore with 3 strings of cemented steel casing is somehow a threat worthy of discussion.  Government regulations require oil and gas well operators to set separate strings of steel casing that is backed by a layer of special cement that’s harder than native rock to isolate all fresh water from the well. Vertical migration of deep formation fluids to fresh water supplies is about as likely as solar radiation making you glow in the dark.

Fracking critics consider thirty feet of rock separating our sewage from our drinking water to be acceptable, but consider more than a mile of impenetrable rock, plus three layers of steel cemented casing, separating oil and gas formations from our drinking water to be unacceptable? The entire issue reminds me that after billions of dollars and volumes of useless regulation, we learned that this planet has been warming ever since the last ice age. According to Forbes, one of those billions ended up in one man’s pocket.

If fracking is not the problem, what is the problem? The problem is well funded environmental groups that oppose American industry threatening government regulators with litigation in order to achieve a radical agenda, and politicians who cower to the threat. In fact, we are all environmentalists in the true sense. Unfortunately, as with all causes that merit public support, there are always opportunists who radicalize the cause into a political organization that vests power in a few in order to subject the many to negative effects of an unpopular agenda.  Radical environmentalists have as their only goal to wield political power for the purpose of forcing regulation and legislation that average Americans would not accept if the truth of the agenda were revealed.

At some point, politicians need to understand that public opinion has turned against the fad of radical environmental issues. Government has for too long responded to the threat of litigation from environmental groups by burdening industry with unnecessary and unreasonable regulation, just to dodge litigation, or gain a few votes. This is one of the main reasons industry has been moving away from the U.S., costing millions of American jobs.

The time has come for government to answer the threat of radical groups. Cowering to it only burdens the industry with tremendous costs of useless regulations.  Americans do not want or need their government to manage their best interest by appeasing radicals that seek to force their agendas on all of America. I urge government at all levels to take responsibility and do what they are elected or hired to do, which is to take a stand on the side of the best interest of America and its citizens.  Public opinion has shifted to maintaining basic freedoms through reasonable common sense regulation.

Americans want government to use their tax money to answer the threat of unreasonable job killing litigation instead of taking the easy way out of shifting costs to the people who are paying salaries and creating jobs. Drawing a line in the sand on these frivolous issues is becoming the new political correctness, and the politicians and government employees that are ahead of the curve will be recognized and rewarded for their commitment to put America first. I challenge government to fight in the courtroom as faithfully as our service men and women fight on the battlefield to give us the opportunity to have this conversation. Politicians, do your job and Americans will support your leadership.

For more information about fracking and how it presents underground, visit “Drilling an Oil Well”, a video that illustrates hydrofracturing.

Respectfully Submitted,
Jim (Blacky) Pryor, Wildcatter