The potent mixture behind fracking fluids by Carrie Tait, March 10, 2012, Globe and Mail
Slick water frack fluid feels like slimy water, has the viscosity of milk, and sports a yellowish tinge. The fluids used in so-called foam fracks and gelled water fracks are thicker – indeed, the stuff is nicknamed “ploppy gel” because of the way it would splatter if it hit the ground. Ploppy gel feels silky, and the off-white colour changes depending on the additive blend. If the snotty mixture is poured from a beaker, it moves as a blob rather than stream of water. Guar gum is used in gelled water fracks. Frack fluid is made in the so-called blender, a large truck where the ingredients are mixed together. When sand is added, the fluid remains silky, but gritty. Pumper trucks push frack fluid through a pipe connected to the wellhead and down the wellbore. A separate pipe containing nitrogen may also be used, with the fluid and nitrogen mixing below the surface. They are pumped at extremely high pressures, and, if all goes according to script, will cause the target rock layer to crack….
-
Recent Posts
- Putin Salutin’ Satan in Victory Day Parade May 9, 2022
- Climate Courts: Let trials proceed without gov’ts if politicians care so little about rights of youth and fail to show up or are too ashamed about giving the rich and corporate polluters everything and nothing to our kids and their future. May 8, 2022
- Too Funny~!! Andrij Melnyk, Ukraine ambassador to Germany and international lawyer, responds to Chancellor Olaf Scholz: Not “very statesmanlike to behave like an offended liver sausage.” Beleidigte Leberwurst indeed! May 3, 2022
- Compendium 8 on Harms of Frac’ing & Associated Infrastructure: “The only method of mitigating its grave threats to public health and the climate is a complete and comprehensive ban on fracking.” No evidence was found showing “fracking can be practiced in a manner that does not threaten human health directly or without imperiling climate stability upon which human health depends.” May 1, 2022
- Poisoned by lead, capitalism and greed April 29, 2022
- Why is The Guardian Publishing Putin Propaganda? April 28, 2022
- Easter rips down statue of soviet marshal Georgy Zhukov, “the butcher,” after Russia’s Moskva sinks. Brute Putin next. Slava Ukraini! April 17, 2022
- Australia High Court “full bench of dinosaurs” unanimously rules Environment Minister owes no duty of care to protect youth from climate change when assessing fossil fuel projects (similar to Alberta courts ruling AER owes no duty of care to residents harmed by companies, not even when their drinking water supplies are illegally frac’d) April 11, 2022
- Canada’s Misogynistic Bench: How many rapes will Paul Batchelor get away with? How soon will he be free to rape again and again and again? April 10, 2022
- Global First! Inaugural class of UVic’s Indigenous law program—the world’s first law degree to combine Indigenous and non-Indigenous laws—will graduate spring 2022. April 9, 2022
- Fox Creek, Alberta: TC Energy P/L leak, ignition and fire. Was it caused by cumulative frac quake/frac hit harms? Is the gas sour from industry souring formations with thousands of massive fracs of untreated contaminated surface water? April 8, 2022
- Colorado: After thousands harmed, Bill introduced for an Act on Oversight of *All* (not just some frac) Chemicals Used in Oil & Gas Production (to also disallow trade secrets). Will the oil & gas industry and the rich (judges included) allow this to pass? April 7, 2022
- Russia’s Illegal War: Street Mural in Kyiv by Ukrainian artist Sasha Korban, “We will stand, we will win.” April 7, 2022
- Match made in Hell: Calgary-based killer Calfrac supports Putin’s illegal war, rape & pillage in Ukraine; Frac giants Baker Hughes, Schlumberger, Halliburton too. No wonder: invading, rape & pillage is what frac’ers do. March 17, 2022
- International Women’s Day 2022 March 8, 2022