Nick Grealy Administrator of NaturalGas2.0, NoHotAir and ShaleGasInfo Blogs  

Nick Grealy deals with another of the Zombie Shale Facts © destroying the false notion fracking fluids are exotic, unnatural and extremely dangerous.

Among the supposed facts (I call them Zombie Shale Facts @) that keep on coming no matter how often they are refuted is an old favorite that still rated a mention in “evidence” given to our House of Lords recently. The report took evidence from a wide range of scientists from throughout the world, but also from a fractivist group called FFBRA (which writes the sort of stuff you find in fractivist publications everywhere):

127. The Frack Free Balcombe Residents Association (FFBRA) wrote that in the US, over 600 chemicals had been used in fracking fluid and some of these were “hazardous air and drinking water pollutants.” They were also concerned that many of the chemicals used are “proprietary and ‘trade secret chemicals’, making assessment of their health impact difficult”. They cited a 2011 report from the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce as the source of these claims.

Perhaps the members of FFBRA are the intellectual inheritors of Galileo, because after all, science is not a popularity contest. Perhaps, in between the cups of tea, they have discovered something the Royal Academy overlooked. Then again, perhaps not.

Fracking Fluids Are No Surprise

The information FFBRA breathlessly revealed to Select Committee is, like so much else, out of date and out of context.

The main point to consider is that the 600 chemicals represented a broad range of choices, not 600 certainties. The reality, which just doesn’t have that alarmist ring loved by “controversial” opponents, is that there are rarely more than a handful of chemicals used in fracking fluids and they are subject to mandatory disclosure laws in the EU. There has been so little fracking in Europe that we can see the ingredients, of which there are only three from Poland,  and one from the UK. You can see more over at WEG, where you can see a breakdown by well in Germany. Two things are clear: No one is hiding anything and there isn’t a very exciting number to reveal. But “over 600” chemicals sounds as thrilling as “secret” sounds threatening.

You could if you wish have over 100 flavors of Dunkin Donuts, but would you really want a Strawberry, Maple, Sugar Dream Swirl, Frosted, Lemon Jelly, Pina Colada, Cocoa, Vanilla Peanut Butter Kreme one? It would be very expensive, and probably inedible, defeating the basic purpose of the baked good in question.

Similarly, using more than a handful of additives in fracking fluids would be both expensive and unnecessary. We’ll touch on the additives themselves in another zombie fact, but modern shale science can be traced back to mistakes made at Mitchell Energy in the late 1990’s where using 90% LESS chemicals was found to work far more efficiently than the old recipe. The mistake cut several hundred thousands of dollars off the cost of the well and produced huge volumes of gas.

Fractivists, who, safe to say, have a more paranoid, less forgiving view of human nature than many of us, will continue to insist that Dick Cheney enabled shale climate criminals will stop at nothing to hide their evil doing. But most people will realize that companies reveal ingredients in everything else too. Vanilla Peanut Butter Kreme Donuts being just one (emphasis added):

INGREDIENTS: Donut: Enriched Unbleached Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Iron as Ferrous Sulfate, Thiamin Mononitrate, Enzyme, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Palm Oil, Water, Dextrose, Soybean Oil, Whey (a milk derivative), Skim Milk, Yeast, Contains less than 2% of the following: Salt, Leavening (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda), Defatted Soy Flour, Wheat Starch, Mono and Diglycerides, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Cellulose Gum, Soy Lecithin, Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum, Artificial Flavor, Sodium Caseinate (a milk derivative), Enzyme, Colored with (Turmeric and Annatto Extracts, Beta Carotene), Eggs; Peanut Butter Flavored Kreme Filling: [Vanilla Flavored Buttercreme Filling: Sugar, Vegetable Shortening (Palm Oil, Canola Oil, Mono and Diglycerides), Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Artificial Flavor, Guar Gum, Titanium Dioxide (Color), Salt, Polysorbate 60, Potassium Sorbate (Preservative), Citric Acid; Peanut Butter Flavored Icing: Sugar, Water, Corn Syrup, Contains less than 2% of the following: Colored With (Caramel Color, Titanium Dioxide), Gum Arabic, Potassium Sorbate and Sodium Benzoate (Preservatives), Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Artificial Flavor, Salt, Agar, Citric Acid, Artificial Colors (Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Red 40)]; White Icing: Sugar, Water, Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil, Contains 2% or less of: Maltodextrin, Dextrose, Soybean Oil, Corn Starch, Sodium Propionate and Potassium Sorbate (Preservatives), Salt, Titanium Dioxide (Color), Citric Acid, Polyglycerol Esters of Fatty Acids, Agar, Soy Lecithin (Emulsifier), Artificial Flavor.

Some Caution Regarding Fracking Fluids Is Warranted

Guar Beans used to make Guar Gum

Caution: A cursory analysis of the above shows common ingredients found in fracking fluids, such as Titanium Dioxide, Guar Guam, Polysorbate, Citric Acid, Salt and who knows what else are in the above flavor. Hate fracking fluids? Please, move away from the donut. But of course, the average GMO paranoid Fiends of the Earth fractivist would sooner eat a whaleburger than enjoy a Dunkin Donut. But even there, don’t be so sure you haven’t already been exposed to far worse.

I’m often asked if I would let my children drink fracking fluids. I’m thankful they were breastfed, because there are fracking fluids aplenty in Hipp Combiotic Organic First Infant Milk too:

Organic Skimmed Milk,Organic Demineralised Whey Powder, Organic Vegetable Oils, Prebiotic Fibres (Galacto-Oligosaccharides from Lactose), Organic Lactose, LCP Oils (Fish, Vegetable), Calcium Carbonate, Emulsifier Soya Lecithin, Potassium Chloride, L-Tyrosine, L-Phenylalanine, Vitamin Mix [Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin A, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Thiamin (Vitamin B1), Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin K, Biotin, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12], Magnesium Carbonate, Zinc Sulphate, L-Tryptophan, Iron Sulphate, Stabiliser (Lactic Acid), Copper-Lysine Complex, Potassium Iodate, Manganese Sulphate, Sodium Selenate, Contains: Milk, Fish, Soya

In short, we exist in a huge chemical soup. And guess what? We live to tell the tale.

Some US Perspective on Fracking Fluids

Editor’s Note: It’s important, also, to remember the premise of the “600 chemicals” argument, that fracking fluids end up in drinking water, is false. There is no case, in 60+ years of fracking in the US, where fracking fluids have ended up in drinking water supplies or polluted any groundwater supply, a fact acknowledged by our last two US EPA Administrators.

We also looked at the fracking fluid ingredients employed in this hydraulic fracturing operation completed less than a month ago in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. The top ingredient after water and sand was hydrochloric acid. Here is a manufacturer’s description of some of the other uses of hydrochloric acid:

The food industry uses hydrochloric acid in the processing of a variety of products. A major use of hydrochloric acid by the food industry is for the production of corn syrups such as high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Much of the hydrochloric acid consumed in the HFCS industry is used to regenerate the ion exchange resins that are employed to remove impurities. Hydrochloric acid can also be used to acid-modify cornstarch and to adjust the pH of intermediates, final product and wastewater. The largest use of HFCS is in the production of soft drinks, which accounts for 70-75% of demand.

Hydrochloric acid is also used in other food processing applications including the production of hydrolyzed vegetable protein and soy sauce. It is used in acidulating crushed bones for the manufacture of gelatin and as an acidifier for products such as sauces, vegetable juices and canned goods.

Hydrochloric acid is consumed in the production of artificial sweeteners. It is consumed in the production of lysine, choline chloride (both used primarily as animal feed additives) and citric acid.

The second largest ingredient after water and sand is guar gum. Where do you find that? Well, donuts as we saw above, and Breyers@ Homemade Vanilla ice cream (see “Nutrition Facts”) to name just two of multitudinous such food products.

And the third largest ingredient after water and sand? Well, that’s sodium chloride, pictured below:

We could go on, of course, but you’ve gotten the idea by now. Fractivists create compound lies to advance the fears they hope will stampede others into adopting their ideology. They start by just assuming fracking fluids will enter drinking water supplies, which is the first lie. Then, they falsely postulate that every ingredient ever used in a fracking fluid will be used in every fracking job. Finally, they pretend those ingredients are exotic, unnatural and extremely dangerous. Yet, we all eat and drink much of the stuff. They are doomsday prophets, the likes of which every culture and generation produces. Our progress has depended upon our ability to rise above them.