In fact, in an effort to clear more land for fracking operations, drillers are currently pushing to pass a bill that would limit the authority of Pennsylvania state agencies to designate and protect endangered species. Fracking operations require anywhere from to 1, truckloads of materials.
A single drilling station can affect 30 acres of forest. Birds and nocturnal species are highly sensitive to disruption. A study in New Mexico found lower diversity within bird communities in noisy areas which affected the plant populations that birds help to pollinate.
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Fracking is one more added pressure, but the consequences are quite significant. Out West the industry is carving up a different kind of habitat, and that has other species on the ropes. Greater sage grouse , for example, depend on large home ranges composed of intact areas of sagebrush. Cattle ranching and development of all kinds have pushed the grouse near extinction, and continued unbridled oil and gas extraction in its remaining habitat could tip it over the edge.
Noise poses additional risks for birds that depend on their hearing. A study published in Biological Conservation in found that noise from compressor stations, which run 24 hours a day, reduced the ability of northern saw-whet owls to catch prey.
Light, too, can be a problem. Oil and gas operations in some places have turned once-dark rural areas into blazing mini-cities in quick time. Light pollution like this can be deadly for migratory birds and disrupt other nocturnal animals. The fracking process uses a lot of water and much of that contaminated H 2 O returns to the surface, bringing with it heavy metals, radioactivity, toxic chemicals many of which are industry trade secrets and high levels of salinity.
Spills or intentional dumping of wastewater or fracking fluid released million gallons into the environment between and , according to an investigation by the Associated Press. Unsafe levels of some contaminants have been found to persist for years , as was the case in North Dakota. Not all spills and intentional releases of wastewater in streams create noticeable impacts like fish going belly up — some are more subtle and harder to see — but they may still take a real toll on aquatic life.
A study in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety looked at what happens when crustaceans called water fleas encounter a fracking-fluid spill. Some residents in affected areas even reported being able to light their water on fire due to gas contamination. There have been instances of fracking water trickling into pastures and streams. The dead fish were found with lesions on their gills and their livers and spleens badly damaged.
The creek was formerly one of the cleanest in the country and billed an Outstanding State Resource Water asset. It is home to an endangered species of bird, the diminutive colorful minnow called blackside dace, which is protected under the the Endangered Species Act ESA.
A particular method of fracking, called Marcellus Shale Drilling, creates brine in the millions of gallons of water that the process needs. Brine is a solution of salt or sodium chloride in water. The brine causes the creation of TDS totally dissolved acids which is perfect for the breeding of golden algae.
It was such algae that accounted for the deaths of thousands of fish in Dunkard Creek, Pennsylvania. Over the past decade, more than , acres of natural land have been damaged all over America by fracking activity.
Whole ecosystems have perished in these places. A new report has found dozens of cases of illness, death and reproductive issues in cows, horses, goats, llamas, chickens, dogs, cats, fish and other wildlife, and humans. It says these conditions could be the result of exposure to gas drilling operations. Hydraulic fracturing, popularly called hydrofracking, is a process for extracting natural gas from shale using chemicals and water.
The paper's authors, Robert Oswald, a professor of molecular medicine at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine, and veterinarian Michelle Bamberger, DVM '85, interviewed animal owners in six states -- Colorado, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas -- and cited 24 cases where animals were potentially affected by gas drilling.
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