St, Nicholas. "Fracking Chemicals Detected in Pennsylvania Drinking Water."The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 May 2015. Web. 05 May 2015.
In the article, Fracking Chemicals Detected in Pennsylvania Drinking Water, the author explains the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, or more commonly known as fracking. Fracking is a drilling process in which a drill is stuck many feet into the ground and chemicals are pushed down in order to force gases up. This process was thought to be harmless, however recently chemicals from fracking were found in the drinking water of Bradford County, Pennsylvania. Many of the wells, established in 2009, are placed 1,000 feet below ground. This leads scientists to believe that the chemicals from the fracking cannot reach the water supply of homes. It states in the article that, “Dr. Brantley said her team believed that the well contaminants came from either a documented surface tank leak in 2009 or, more likely, as a result of poor drilling well integrity.”
Fracking has continued to cause an issue in the water systems because of the chemicals that it has been omitting into the water supply. In the western part of the country, fracking is seen very often especially in more remote states in the open land. The chemicals used in the liquid for fracking have leaked into the water, however there has been more of an effect on the wild life rather than the humans. In the article it stated that some of these chemicals are similar to ones that cause cancer.
The author did a good job with this article, however there were a few things that could have been done better. It would have been helpful if the author included more background information on fracking such as why there is fracking and its effect on people. Also more statistics and general information would have helped me further understand this article and the importance.
Martha Thomas
ReplyDeleteCurrent Events Review
St, Nicholas. "Fracking Chemicals Detected in Pennsylvania Drinking Water."The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 May 2015. Web. 05 May 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/science/earth/fracking-chemicals-detected-in-pennsylvania-drinking-water.html?ref=science&_r=0
Sally did a good job on her current events review. I thought she included some good suggestions to the author in the last paragraph, I too thought the article needed more information and statistics on fracking . Sally included details that I never knew in her second paragraph, I didn’t know fracking was prevalent in the West, and affected wildlife so much. I liked how Sally incorporated a quote into her review, it provided insight into the topic.
I wish that Sally had did some research on fracking in New York, and Westchester and incorporated that information into the second paragraph, connecting the issue to her own life. I also think that it would have been helpful if Sally had included more information on the purpose of fracking, I know that it’s to push gases out of the ground but why are the gasses in the ground problematic in the first place? Do they affect farming?
I had never heard of fracking before reading Sally’s review and am kind of intrigued with the concept. What is its purpose, and how is it done? What machinery is necessary, and how big of a production is it?