Last Friday, the Star Herald published a very interesting article. It stated that the Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (NOGCC) was going to allow public statement at their hearing on March 24 for their proposal to start the use of a fracking wastewater well in Sioux County. Anyone who understands just how terrible fracking is for the environment, who know that this well should not be done. Fracking basically involves drilling deep underground and using millions of gallons of water ladled with harsh chemicals to extract natural gas from Marcellus Shale. The water fractures the shale and the released natural gas leaks back up to the surface. This process is very sloppy and has resulted in contaminated watersheds in many instances.

Natural gas is not as bad for the environment as something like coal. Actually, it burns of 17% less greenhouse gases when it is fired. The part that is so terrible about fracking is the side effects of the extraction of the resources.

First off, it would involve the shipping of this hazardous well water across our state. That would be quite risky and if there is anything that is known from the Nebraskan stance on the Keystone Pipeline, we are definitely against the idea of having those kinds of risks. The water used from a fracking sight involves hundreds of harsh chemicals that are needed for fracturing the Marcellus Shale that natural gas is found in. Nebraska only fracks in a portion of Kimball and Banner counties. Why would we put our state’s environment ahead of a small group of people working in a minute fraction of our state?

Another thing is the NOGCC’s mission statement. It states that their goal is that oil and gas will “… be obtained within the state while protecting the environment”. Either that is just a useless clause put in there to make them seem like they care for the environment or they are completely breaking their mission statement. Putting the two to eight million gallons of water per well into our Earth is going to show side effects down the road.

Most people’s belief in conservationism has nothing to do with tree hugging or any of that. they simply want to; when they’re older, bring their children into a world that is better off for wear than when they came into it. No one wants their children to hear about polar bears or tigers as only extinct animals, but as live, prosperous animals. Mistreating our environment by putting fracking wastewater into is a key example of something that is going to slowly kill our Earth and make nature a continually shrinking part of everyone’s lives.