As critics decry the large quantities of water that fracking demands, putting pressure on resources, manufacturers and energy-services firms are touting new technologies that use less.
In the early days of the shale-gas boom that is now at full throttle around the U.S. and the globe, speculators rushed into hydrofracking with high hopes, often with little attention to how much water would be needed or the best practices for managing the water when they were done with the wells.
After several minor-to-moderate earthquakes shook the U.S. interior in 2011, a number of reports suggested a link between hydraulic fracturing—a technique used to extract natural gas from shale-gas deposits—and increased seismic activity in areas typically not prone to such events.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on April 18 finalized standards under the Clean Air Act to reduce air pollution associated with oil and natural gas production through hydraulic fracturing.
As New York intensifies its debate over whether to employ hydraulic fracturing techniques to recover shale-gas deposits in the Marcellus shale formation, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is sticking to his pledge to "let the science and the facts" determine if the state' should lift a two-year moratorium on fracking.
Seismic monitoring continues around a deep fracking wastewater well in Ohio after a magnitude-4.0 earthquake and 10 other earthquakes were tentatively linked to activity at the well.
