Essay --

Hydraulic fracturing, or â€Å"fracking† is a process in which natural gas and oil are extracted from shale rock layers deep within the earth by creating fractures below the earth’s surface. This is done by injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into wells. There are a number of environmental concerns related to hydraulic fracturing. One concern is the amount of water it takes to extract these resources – it could involve up to 5.9 billions gallons of water per day. In order for these fracking sites to get all that water 200 trucks are needed in order for this to happen. In drought prone areas of the country, this could create additional strain on the environment. The areas that are most prone to drought are areas like Texas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Virginia, and Kentucky along with other states surrounding them. Droughts take place all over the United States but most severely in the south as shown in this map. The dark, dark red are the states that have the most number of drought evens occur per year. The chemicals that are involved in the process are al...