GOLDEN - Oil and gas fracturing, or fracking, has been around for decades, but in recent weeks the drilling method has upset many Colorado homeowners who are now worried about the effects it will have on their health.
On Monday night, Commerce City residents met to talk about a new fracking project near the intersection of 104th Street and Tower Road. Their biggest concerns are over water contamination and exposure to chemicals used in the extraction process.
Petroleum experts say the process has a proven safety record, and say the key to understanding fracking is knowing exactly how it works.
Professor Will Fleckenstein with the Colorado School of Mines says most fracking operations take place between 5,000 and 10,000 feet below ground. That can be the equivalent of more than eight Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other. In all cases, the fracking operation takes place below the water-saturated aquifer.
"All it is, is really a fracture of the bedrock below the surface," Stan Dempsey, Jr. with the Colorado Petroleum Association said.
Dempsey says water and sand are pumped into the bedrock, cracking it and squeezing it.
"That opens up the pore into the area in which we are extracting the resources," he said.
After that, oil and gas are helped back up to the surface by a cocktail of chemicals.
"It could be salt, it could by types of polymers you have in milkshakes. Then you have other things that are more common like swimming pool cleaners," Fleckenstein said.
Those chemicals have become a source of concern for many residents who live near fracking operations, but experts say the chance of the chemicals contaminating the water supply of surrounding area is slim to none.
"You've got multiple defenses of contamination of surface aquifers," Fleckenstein said.
He says every fracking well is lined with thick pipe and cement, which makes it virtually impossible for the chemicals to ever come into contact with underground water.
"From Pennsylvania to New Mexico to Colorado and Texas - all of them have not found a single instance of contamination of aquifers," Fleckenstein said.
Dempsey says fracking, which originated in the 1940s, could be the safest it's ever been thanks to new technology.
"We're smarter in the way we do it," he said. "We're smarter in the compounds we use."
He says that is one big reason fracking operations have expanded in recent years, though, he says drilling companies always move forward with a set of priorities in mind.
"We are all environmentalists and we want to make sure Colorado's land and water are safe," Dempsey said.
Currently, petroleum companies are not legally required to reveal the mixture of chemicals they use in fracking. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission plans to vote on a measure in December that would make that mandatory.
(KUSA-TV © 2011 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
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