Advice on this topic has been pretty consistent so far on this journey. One is spills and accidents involving the surface transport, storage and use of fracking chemicals and waste. The second is disposal of fracking drill cuttings, water and fluid once it returns to the surface.
Regarding the water and fracking fluid, about 10 to 20 percent of the liquid that is pumped down the well comes back, and when it comes back it is different than when it was put down. In the Marcellus shale, it comes into contact with water in the shale formation that is radioactive and some of that radioactivity is brought back to the surface as part of preparing the well to produce.
You can add Bill Kappel, hydrologist emeritus with the U.S. Geological Survey New York Water Science Center, as endorsing these as the top two risks related to fracking.
