As the New Brunswick government reconsiders its moratorium on natural gas development, opponents say there’s now stronger science that it’s harmful, while proponents say there are also safer ways to do it.
“Concerns of environmental and health problems … remain exactly the same,” said Jim Emberger of the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance. “Only each has now more credence and more severity attached to it.”
Meanwhile, according to Maurice Dusseault, emeritus professor of geological engineering at the University of Waterloo, “hydraulic stimulation and shale gas development can be done with a high degree of safety — much, much higher than other industrial operations such as fishing, mining, agriculture, et cetera.”
Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing or hydraulic stimulation, requires blasting a mix of water and chemicals into a well — drilled deep before making a turn horizontally — to release oil, gas, geothermal energy or water that is held within shale rock formations.
CBC News spoke with Emberger, Dusseault and Jim Livingstone, who is interested in a different type of drilling for gas near Moncton, about developments in science and technology that have bearing on fracking’s impact on the environment and human health.
Water supply
One of the main environmental concerns about fracking remains its use of large quantities of water.
Today, even more water is used, said Emberger, because greater underground distances can be fracked from one well.
In an email,
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