Article Title: The Truth About Fracking Author/Source: Chris Mooney

A: List the major ideas, concepts or key points- point by point - Fracturing a deep shale layer one time to release natural gas might pose little risk to drinkingwater supplies, but doing so repeatedly could be problematic - Fracking- When a vertical well shaft hits a layer of shale, chemically treated water and sand are blasted down at high pressure to crack open the rock and liberate natural gas. - If fracking is defined as a single fracture of deep shale, that action might be benign. When multiple fracks are done in multiple, adjacent wells, however, the risk for contaminating drinking water may rise. If fracking is defined as the entire industrial operation, including drilling and the storage of wastewater, contamination has already been found. - Advanced tests, such as putting tracer chemicals down a well to see if they reappear in drinking water, could ultimately prove whether fracking is safe or not. - Some regulators are not waiting for better science they are moving toward allowing fracking on an even wider scale. - Crack it: Drillers bore down to a shale layer that can be 5,000 feet deep or more, then turn and continue horizontally as much as another 5,000 feet. The drill bit is retracted water, sand and chemicals are pumped down the well to fracture the rock, releasing gas that flows back up with the fluid. The tainted wastewater is held in surface ponds or tanks. - Fracking not allowed in New York City watersheds because of source and citizen water - 2 to 4 million gallons of water for fracking - Transporting liquids involves fleet of tanker trucks and large storage containers - 75% of what goes down comes back up - Chemicals are used to help fracking flow - Toxic water must be stored on-site and later transported to treatment plants or is reused - Companies use open-air pits dug into the ground. - All these processes can cause accidents. - The states Department of Environmental Protection fined Chesapeake almost $1 million for contaminating 16 families water wells with methane as a result of improper drilling practices. - Once a drill pad and wastewater pond are established, a driller may sink a dozen wells or more to fully tap the shale gas. Three spots may have the greatest potential to contaminate groundwater. Chemical-laden wastewater ponds can leak or overflow, which happened in

Pennsylvania in September because of flooding by Tropical Storm Lee. Concrete that encases the vertical pipe can crack, and new fissures opened by the fracking can connect to natural fissures or old wells. - The EPA also claimed that one of the wells contained chemicals sometimes used in fracking such as benzeneand was delivering flammable water

B: Summarize the AUTHORs main point or idea- at LEAST 1-2 paragraphs Fracking- When a vertical well shaft hits a layer of shale, chemically treated water and sand are blasted down at high pressure to crack open the rock and liberate natural gas. If fracking is defined as a single fracture of deep shale, that action might be benign. When multiple fracks are done in multiple, adjacent wells, however, the risk for contaminating drinking water may rise. If fracking is defined as the entire industrial operation, including drilling and the storage of wastewater, contamination has already been found. 2 to 4 million gallons of water for fracking. Transporting liquids involves fleet of tanker trucks and large storage containers. 75% of what goes down comes back up. The EPA is looking for other reasons why fracking could cause contamination of water supplies. The last recommendation said in this article is that companies should be forced to put in a tracer that would show the natural gases that are in the water supply. If so, it would be a relatively easy thing to do. The EPA themselves considered using tracers also.

C: Write a reaction paragraph to the article stating your own thoughts on the topic, using specific citations from the article to support your views After reading this article and watching the fracking movie, I think that the companies that do the fracking should know the affect it has on other people using the water, they should pay for their thing because it harms people. With the contamination of drinking water due to fracking, it can harm human health, animal health and could also kill the humans and animals. Even though it is not good for people but it also take up 2 to 4 million gallons of water for just one pump? Isnt it ridiculous? I believe that natural gas is much better for the environment and human health. If fracking fails, it could release those chemicals that used to help the fracking will dump to water that people drinking every day. So What? Fracking 2-4 million gallons of water for just one pump Chemicals Destroy everything Says Who? Chris Mooney Anthony Gorody Lisa Jackson Anthony Ingraffea

What If? What Does This Remind Me Of? The companies stop doing fracking? Or they The movie Gasland. It is also about fracking use another method that safer and cleaner? and how it harmful to human and other

species life.