I REGULARLY enjoy Ol’ Blind Joe’s diverse and pithy jottings in The Toodyay Herald but his March column has stuck in my craw because it regurgitates some very questionable hearsay about fracking.
The technique of fracking, as used in hydrocarbon exploration, injects fluid (mostly water) at high pressure into deep rock formations to fracture them and liberate tightly bound gas or oil so that the products can be extracted and gathered at the surface just as in normal hydrocarbon production.
Fracking and similar drilling techniques have been used in Australia for decades without notable problem.
Despite this track record many in the community (including Joe) have expressed fears arising from two misconceptions.
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Firstly, that fracking is likely to contaminate, or somehow interfere with water supplies desperately needed for human activities – particularly so in outback areas where oil and gas companies frequently operate.
Secondly, that fracking uses industrial chemicals which intensify the potential harm associated with spillage or contamination of water sources.
Both these ideas may seem plausible to Joe’s readers but in fact are highly misleading to the point where presenting them as reality is inexcusable.
Fracking is a highly complex and expensive procedure which no individual or company would undertake lightly, without careful consideration of risks.
It is conducted deep underground (far below any water supply aquifers) using water with very small additions of other materials which are (in most cases) both common in everyday life and demonstrated safe at the concentrations used.
In my personal experience I know that much effort is expended to prevent any escape of either injected fracking fluids or released gas or oil.
Nevertheless, as a scientist, I also know that no intensive, highly technical activity can ever be guaranteed risk-free. Hence there are always contingencies, no matter how unlikely, which must be considered.
Comprehensive risk-management and mitigation planning are the proper safeguards against such hypothetical events, not the knee-jerk rejection of technology.
The latter reaction may forego access to gas resources which have proven potential to reliably support the transition to renewable energy systems.
Those who are not swayed should remember that Australians regularly and voluntarily immerse themselves in water containing a variety of dangerous chemicals at concentrations ranging from unwise to outright hazardous to humans.
Yes, the water from swimming pools and spas is unsafe for consumption and should never be released into waterways.
industries is causing far more damage to drinking supplies than the worst consequences of fracking could ever match.
If well-meaning individuals who seek to protect our community’s water and environment are really serious then I suggest that this is where they concentrate their efforts.
No, Ol’ Blind Joe, fracking is not “one of the world’s worst mining technologies ever developed”, not by any stretch of the imagination, nor is using the technique to promote an increasingly green economy “short-sighted and stupid”
Please do some research and think carefully about the alternatives before making such assertions.
Other than that Joe, keep it up.
Peter Edwards
Retired petroleum geologist
Toodyay
