Discovering Shale Gas: An Investor Guide to Hydraulic Fracturing

Discovering Shale Gas: An Investor Guide to Hydraulic Fracturing by Susan Williams, February 2012, IRRC Institute
Contamination has occurred primarily through methane migration, poor wastewater management and chemical spills. Yet practices and processes to significantly reduce these risks are widely known and generally practiced in the industry. Poor implementation of these practices and processes generally has been the reason for contamination…. While much public interest has focused on the chemicals in the fracturing fluid (See Box 6: Fracking Fluid Chemicals, p. 22), the produced water originating from the shale formation may include brine, gases, heavy metals, organic compounds and naturally occurring radioactive elements (NORM)…. The NRDC contends that it is a common misconception that produced water is relatively clean and says that instead it can contain arsenic, lead, hexavalent chromium, barium, chloride, sodium, sulfates and other minerals, and may be radioactive.