There is little information about the effects on the environment of hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas, according to a panel of 14 international experts. Canada’s environment minister commissioned a report from the Council of Canadian Academies in response to growing protests about so-called fracking.
In this process, energy companies inject chemicals and sand deep underground to fracture the rock and free up natural gas. The report says risks include potential contamination of ground water as well as exposure to poorly understood chemical mixtures.
Potential ‘risk to water resources’
“There is reason to believe that shale gas development poses a risk to water resources, but the extent of that risk, and whether substantial damage has already occurred, cannot be assessed because of a lack of scientific data and understanding,” the report says.
Fracking could also add to climate change because of natural gas leaking from wells, suggests the report. It adds that the government and industry have to do a better job of tracking the effects and that there is little scientific research available.
The experts also note that in the past, many industrial initiatives did not anticipate environmental impacts and where they did, they were ignored.
“”What is perhaps more alarming is that where substantial adverse impacts were anticipated, these concerns were dismissed or ignored by those who embraced the expected positive benefits of the economic activities that produced those impacts.”
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