Released December 22, 2011

STORRS, Conn. – The scene in Williston, North Dakota, resembles the California Gold Rush days of the 1840s and 50s. Only now, instead of coming in horse-drawn wagons, settlers are arriving in RVs, mini-vans, and pickup trucks.

Williston has been put on the map because modern techniques in oil drilling – known as ‘fracking’ or hydraulic fracturing – have suddenly made it feasible to tap the 11 billion or so barrels of oil that lie in the Bakken Formation under North Dakota and Montana.

Fracking is the process of using explosive charges, followed by the injection of millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals to break up rock miles beneath the surface of the earth. Horizontal drilling allows shale gas or shale oil to be extracted and pumped to the surface, along with the fluid used in the drilling operation.

While the availability of new sources of oil may seem like a positive step for the nation, the practice of hydraulic fracturing has raised concerns. And, while North Dakota is fairly remote from a population standpoint, there are also deposits of natural gas and oil, such as the Marcellus Shale in the Appalachian Basin, that lie under densely populated areas in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York.

Hydrogeology expert Gary Robbins, a professor of geology in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment in the College of Agricultural and Natural Resources and a member of UConn’s Center for Integrative Geosciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, spoke with UConn Today about the issue.

--continued on University of Connecticut news, http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2011/12/fracking-%E2%80%93-good-news-or-bad-...

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