RESPONSE: Fracking factually

Obviously Ms. Moore really doesn’t understand her subject at all and any data she is regurgitating is from some environmental organization that is using 30-year-old data to shock and mislead people about the subject.

First off, fracking has been done since the late 1940s. However, modern hydraulic fracking is nothing like what they did then. The major improvement in the operation is directional drilling and almost no chemicals used in the process.

First they drill down way below the water table and then they drill horizontally — sometimes as much as 2 miles horizontally. The fracturing itself is the result of explosives forced down the casing and then detonated in the horizontal. The force of the explosion blows holes through the casing wall and into the shale, thereby “fracturing the shale.”

Then huge amounts of water and sand and a very small amount of suspension fluid and hydrochloric acid in the mix are pumped into the well casing and into the shale. Note, I said a very small amount of chemicals are used, NOT 600 different chemicals as Ms. Moore purports. The water is merely the vehicle to carry the sand up into the fissures of the shale caused by the fracturing procedure, and the suspension fluid helps the sand stay in suspension. The sand props open the fissures to allow the natural gas and crude oil to be reclaimed. The water is removed and the gas/oil is then pumped from the well.

Granted, this is a simplified but accurate description of the modern process. There are variations of the procedure due to different geology of the shale. My son has worked in the oil and gas industry for over 15 years and owns his own consulting company. He oversees fracking every day of the week and I have spent days with him on the job.

This process is extremely interesting to watch. I am amazed at the amount, complexity and cost of the equipment used in this process, and I am not easily “amazed.” The process and the equipment in reality dwarfs what was shown on the TV show “Blood and Oil.”

Ms. Moore, at the end of her tirade, then tries to tie in fracking with the lead pipe caused water problems in Flint, Michigan. She really needs to get a grip.

DENNIS EDELBROCK

Hayden