- Jun 1, 2017
- 3 min read

Fundraising event this weekend for Frack Free Formby

Many people in Formby have talked with us at our regular stall in the village on Saturday mornings. Thank you for all your input and support! We feel it’s really important that all local residents are aware of the plans for fracking to take place in our area and the potential harm that this might do to our environment, - both wild places and farmland - and the possible risks to our water, our air quality and our health. Also at possible risk are house prices and tourism, plus a significant increase in heavy industrial traffic on our roads.

Together we can challenge these plans and make sure that our voices are heard. A big thank you to the very many people who have signed our petition so far! This is on-going and you can sign online or on paper.

To fight this costs money and on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th June, we have a fundraising/awareness raising event at Lush in Liverpool. Please come along, drop in and see us, sign the petition if you haven’t done so yet and take the opportunity, if you wish, to buy some delicious Lush moisturiser, the profits go to FrackFreeFormby!

We’d love to see you there!

To find out more, go to: www.facebook.com/frackfreeformby

What is Fracking?

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, is a drilling technique used for extracting oil or natural gas from deep underground. Fracking is a hotly debated environmental and political issue. Advocates insist it is a safe and economical source of clean energy; critics, however, claim fracking can destroy drinking water supplies, pollute the air and contribute to the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

How fracking works

Most fracking wells in use today rely on two technologies: hydraulic fracturing, which has been in use since the 1940s, and horizontal drilling, a technique that first became widespread in the 1990s.

In simplified terms, the fracking process starts with a well that is drilled vertically or at an angle from the surface to a depth of 1 to 2 miles (1.6 to 3.2 kilometers) or more.

Once the vertical well reaches the deep layer of rock where natural gas or oil exists, the well curves about 90 degrees and begins drilling horizontally along that rock layer. Horizontal drilling can extend more than 1 mile (1.6 km) from the vertical well bore.

After the fracking well is fully drilled and encased, fracking fluid is pumped down into the well at extremely high pressure, in some cases exceeding 9,000 pounds per square inch (62,050 kilopascals). The pressure is powerful enough to fracture the surrounding rock, creating fissures and cracks through which oil and gas can flow.

The fluid that is pumped into the well to fracture the rock is called slickwater. It is mostly water, though it also can contain a wide range of additives and chemicals that serve an engineering purpose. Additives can include detergents, salts, acids, alcohols, lubricants and disinfectants. These chemical additives usually make up 0.5 to 2 percent of the slickwater, with the remaining 98 to 99.5 percent consisting of plain water.

In addition to the water and chemical additives, "proppants" such as sand and ceramic particles are also pumped into the fracking well. These proppants are added to prop open the fractures that form under pressure, thereby ensuring that gas and oil can continue to flow freely out of rock fractures even after pumping pressure is released, according to the EPA.

Once the underground rock is shattered and proppants are pumped into place, trapped reservoirs of gas and oil are released and pumped back to the surface, along with millions of gallons of "flowback" liquid, according to the EPA.

The flowback liquid contains water and a number of contaminants, including radioactive material, heavy metals, hydrocarbons and other toxins. This wastewater is stored on the fracking site in pits, injected into deep underground wells or disposed of off-site at a wastewater treatment facility.

"Formation water" is the briny water that was in the pore spaces of the rocks. "The formation water is usually very salty and can have high levels of radon, a radioactive gas that comes from the decay of uranium in the subsurface," Marcia Bjornerud, a structural geologist said:

"Flowback water can be treated, but there are large volumes of it and so dealing with it is expensive, and beyond what many small-town water treatment plants can handle."