Has this guy finally stepped over the line? Has he coined a new swear word? No, he really hasn't. Fracking is an abbreviation for hydraulic fracturing, a term you may have seen recently in news stories. So what is it?

Let's begin with basic geology. Shale is a very dense rock formation consisting of hardened mud. Over geologic time, plant materials within shale are converted to natural gas, or more correctly, methane. Because methane-containing shale is dense and often is buried at depths of a mile or more below land surface, the methane has not been readily available. Geologists knew about this methane but didn't have the technology to recover it cheaply and efficiently. Enter fracking, a technique that involves drilling wells into deep shale formations and recovering the natural gas.

So why is a water guy concerned with natural gas wells? Because the natural gas recovery procedure involves water, lots of water. The way fracking works is this: When a well is drilled into a natural gas bearing shale, little methane moves to the well because it's bound up in the shale. What the drillers do after the well is completed is to inject into the well under high pressure a cocktail of some really nasty chemicals together with sand and a WHOLE lot of water. The pressure forces this mixture into the formation, fracturing it and releasing methane which is recovered when the pressure is relaxed. The procedure is more complicated, but you get the picture.

So what's the problem, don't we need natural gas? Absolutely! Isn't this a good way to recover it? Absolutely! But it's not that simple. There are serious ecological concerns about site disturbance, sources for the water and sand used in the fracking fluid, and how to dispose of the recovered water that can amount to 10 to 70 percent of the fluid pumped down the well. A greater concern is that faulty well construction could allow natural gas and/or fracking fluid to leak into near surface aquifers and contaminate private or public wells. There have been reported but mostly unverified cases in areas near fracking wells where people have turned on their tap and lit methane on fire.

Proper well construction can alleviate many of these concerns. In the eastern United States, fracking has been used for several years to recover natural gas from the Marcellus Shale that underlies parts of New York, Ohio, West Virginia, and much of Pennsylvania. Guess what? A small area of far western Virginia, not including Loudoun County, is underlain by the Marcellus Shale. At this writing, there are no natural gas fracking wells in Virginia. However leasing of mineral rights is occurring in Rockingham County and one company is seriously interested in drilling an exploratory well.

So what's the answer? Fracking or no fracking in Virginia? I wish I knew. My guess is that if the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy determines that adequate safeguards are in place, we will eventually see some natural gas wells.

Please email your thoughts and ideas to: rengberg@verizon.net