Letter to the editor: Fracking facts

Notes: "There is a deep well of ignorance among Canadians with regard to the practices of hydraulic fracturing of gas-bearing rock formations. It was exemplified by the letter in your April issue [Letters, 'No to fracking', April 2013, p. 4]. Gas trapped 'between layers of shale rock' was the first indication (the gas is trapped in the pores of the shale, not between layers), and the second piece of ignorance was that 'fracking is a little-known science'. Fracturing has been done for more than 50 years in the oil industry and is very well understood. As to contamination of groundwater, the fracking takes place several thousand feet below the groundwater sources, and since there must be an impermeable layer between the gas-bearing formation and the surface -- or else the gas would long since have escaped -- there is not communication between the fractured formation and the ground water sources. Those who rail against the producers of the oil and gas that fuel their cars and furnaces would do well to think of their lives without these amenities. Burning wood and cow dung won't cut it". [Text of entire article.]

Subjects: Fracking; Hydraulic fracturing - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada; Oil industries - Canada; Oil industries - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada