Not much buzz in the news about Indiana and hydraulic fracturing, but it seems some laws and regulations are being passed and researched. Fracking is happening all around Indiana.Take a look at the maps, we are surrounded! Do we really want fracking in Indiana? Personally, I say a big HELL NO!
How Fracking Can Effect Your Community And What You Can Do About It
Once a communities water system is made toxic, property values plummet. Homeowners end up with homes that can’t be sold at anywhere near their original value. They are forced to live in their un-sellable homes and continue to be exposed to the toxic environment. Fracking can compromise public health and environmental quality. The map below from the Gasland project shows where drilling areas are most intensive, in red.
Here’s a more detailed map from the Energy Information Administration showing “Shale Plays.”
Shale Plays – Click for larger image (Source: EIA)
The term “play” is used in the oil and gas industry to refer to a geographic area which has been targeted for exploration due to: favorable geoseismic survey results; well logs; or production results from a new or “wildcat well” in the area. An area comes into play when it is generally recognized that there is a valuable quantity of oil or gas to be found. Oil and gas companies will send out professional “land men” who research property records at the local courthouses and after having located landowners who own the mineral rights in the play area, will offer them an oil and gas lease deal. Competition for acreage usually increases based on how hot the play is in terms of production from discovery wells in the area. The more oil and gas there is to be had, the higher the lease payments per acre are.
There is so much news on this type of drilling and the effects it has on our air, water, and most importantly, the Earth. If we break all this shale, we are in essence breaking the Earth. Not a very “green” or ecofriendly thing to do!