Frack! Frack! Frack! A Time to Think

COMMENTARY

by Vince Hancock

As we try to get handle on the consequences of fracking, we wonder if we'll have time to understand them before a basic element of life is locked away.  Water, in bottled form, was a hot topic a few years ago, until activists succeeded in 2009 in limiting Nestle's pumping of water for its Ice Mountain business.  Why should the various sources of our tap water get sucked up by a company that wants to sell it back to us?, was one question raised.  

Five years later, it appears that tap water (groundwater is another name for the water that comes out of your faucet) is being threatened by another industry.  This time, it's not an industry that wants to give it back in attractive packaging for drinking purposes.  Instead, the fracking industry appears to want millions (possibly billions) of groundwater as a disposable tool.  Just as the typical carwash sprays high-pressure water from a hose, mixes it with soap and renders that water unfit for drinking, fracking seems to do the same thing in order to break rocks apart underground.  The chemicals mixed with water during the fracking process are generally considered to be toxic.     

You may have heard about one Canadian company, Encana, and its fracking operation in Kalkaska County.  Two weeks ago, the Traverse City Record Eagle's Matt Troutman reported that the company ran out of groundwater to use and had to buy more from local governments.  

Our colleagues at the Elberta Alert brought our attention to this additional story, by Jeff Alexander at Bridge Magazine, which elaborates on the current (and future) fracking plans in Kalkaska County.

The article implies that "northern Michigan" water may be up for grabs - beyond that of Kalkaska County.  It's hard to know, at the moment, if this is an immediate threat or a future threat.  It appears that more fracking than ever is planned for the coming months.  Can it even be stopped - or temporarily paused - so that the actual benefits and risks can be examined?  

One item at the end of the article leaped at us:  that the natural gas eventually produced by fracking may not be sold back to us by Encana (thus potentially lowering natural gas prices further and making us more self-reliant - one of the arguments for fracking).  Instead, it could be sold to China, which may be willing to pay top-dollar to the Canadian company. 

In that case, what could Michiganders get in exchange for its own reservoir of natural gas?  Fouled, undrinkable groundwater.  Maybe we'll all be forced into buying Nestle's Ice Mountain bottled water, after all. 

The only choice?