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| Fig. 1: Trends in Wells drilled and violations in Pennsylvania from 2010 to 2017, as reported by ECONorthwest. [4] (Image Source: S. Banerjee.) |
The use of fracking, or the combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to unearth new supplies of fossil fuels, has been on the rise across the United States. One particularly notable hub of activity has been in the state of Pennsylvania, where fracking has become a key economic and political factor. [1] Some assert that its potential deleterious environmental and health effects, including contamination of drinking water and impacts on natural resources and public infrastructure, outweigh its potential economic benefits. [2] In evaluating this possibility, though, one needs to understand the perceived and actual economic benefits.
In Pennsylvania communities where fracking was in place, an estimated $4.9 million in annual subsidies was provided, primarily in the form of tax breaks, with 74 percent of local governments surveyed noting that the effect of fracking has resulted in net fiscal benefits to the tune of approximately $400 million annually. [3] However, the annual costs would seem to outweigh this over time, as the costs in the long term emerge from the negative impacts of fracking on the health of residents and the environment. For example, it is estimated that the yearly ecological costs of fracking exceed $1.52 billion. As a case in point, a single fracking well in Dimmock, Pennsylvania incurred costs of $700,000 in water testing expenses in the wake of contamination concerns. [4] Estimates show that annually, the total costs of building and maintaining filtration plants capable of minimizing frackings negative environmental effects would be as high as $6 billion. [1]
Another element of concern is the costs associated with lack of oversight and regulatory mechanisms in this relatively new arena. A retrospective case study by the EPA found increased levels of chloride in groundwater located near hydraulic fracturing waste in Northeastern Pennsylvania, noting that it likely resulted from fracking activity. [2] Another case study found similarly elevated levels in Southwestern Pennsylvania. [3] As shown in Fig. 1, the number of wells drilled over time and the number of attendant alleged violations in Pennsylvania are increasingly tracking with each other. The violations, which the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection tallies annually, are rigidly classified.
These violations almost all entailed (92 percent of them, in fact) environmental and safety-related factors, including the failure to properly store, transport, process, or dispose of residual waste and failure, while other violations included construction activities that neglected to prevent pollution of fresh groundwater. [1] Given that these violations are noted by inspectors without a subsequent indication of any errors or misidentifications, one cannot take the numbers themselves as more than educated estimate, but what the trends do illustrate is that best practices to avoid the accusation of violations are not being employed to the extent needed to demonstrate that fracking can rightly be considered a safe alternative. [1] As such, it can be argued that fracking does not currently bring about the cost savings to justify its implementation.
© Samir Banerjee. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] "Retrospective Case Study in Northeastern Pennsylvania - Study of the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing on Drinking Water Resources," U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA/600/R-14/088, May 2016.
[2] "The Costs of Fracking," Environment New York, 2021.
[3] "Retrospective Case Study in Southwestern Pennsylvania - Study of the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing on Drinking Water Resources," U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA 600/R-14/084, May 2015.
[4] "The Economic Costs of Fracking in Pennsylvania," ECONorthwest, May 2019.