LOS ANGELES – On Friday, February 28, the City Council banned the practice of fracking and other forms of retrieving oil and gas from the wells in Los Angeles. According to the State Department of Conservation, Los Angeles has 1,880 active oil and gas wells and 2,932 abandoned ones.
The term fracking comes from the term “hydraulic fracturing,” which is when pressurized water is used to cause fissures in rocks. According to National Geographic, the fracking that we are familiar with nowadays comes from the insertion of tubes a few miles below ground until it hits a shale layer. The shale layer is full of natural gas that is trapped miles underground.
When the pipes are forced down to the shale layer, it often finds a home in between a sandstone layer, where the shale oil congregates. Once inserted, plastic balls are forced down the pipes to force holes in the sandstone layer, then water is pumped through the hole and fractures the rock. Once this process is completed, oil drains through the pipes to be collected; used fluid also returns with the oil. When the fluid isn’t recycled, it is placed below groundwater in ‘disposal wells.’
In D News, a YouTube page for the Discovery Channel, the pros and cons of fracking are discussed with Discovery News Earth Producer, Christy Reed. Reed explained that prior to the use of fracking in 2006, the conventional way to get to the natural gas was to wait for the gas to leave and fill a pocket before they tapped into it. As seen in the 2010 documentary, “Gasland,” the primary problem with fracking is the contamination of groundwater.
Another problem with the practice of hydraulic fracturing is the microseismic events it has been known to cause; Reeds states that, “In the UK, [there was an] 18 month moratorium on fracking because of earthquakes that happened in some of the areas.”
