Does the amount of water usage strike anyone beside me as high?

[littlemissmartypants]

The make‐up of fracturing fluid varies from one geologic basin or formation to another.

Evaluating the relative volumes of the components of a fracturing fluid reveals the relatively small volume of additives that are present. The additives depicted on the right side of the pie chart represent less than 0.8% of the total fluid volume. Overall the concentration of additives in most slickwater fracturing fluids is a relatively consistent 0.5% to 2% with water making up 98% to 99.2%.

http://fracfocus.org/water-protection/drilling-usage

[yellerpup]

1. The 'active ingredients' in the fracking process

are so toxic that they have to be overwhelmed with water to pass safety tests. Those ingredients will still kill you but at a much slower rate.

[littlemissmartypants]

2. OK

so it will contaminate how much water to get how much natural gas?

[yellerpup]

3. That's the scary thing.

Could be all of it. Regional, at first, then everywhere.

I just signed up for a wind/solar energy provider. It's not guaranteed to cost less, but it will be clean energy.

[Igel]

4. It shouldn't.

Water's not very compressible, which is why it's used. It's a great way to create pressure in small cracks and to transmit shockwaves to widen those cracks.

All the rest is just to make the water either slightly better at that job or to reduce problems with using water. Corrosion inhibitors to prevent rust and corrosion; biocides to prevent mildew, mold, etc.; scale inhibitors and acid to prevent mineral deposits in the equipment; friction reducers to prevent wear and tear and make the process slightly more efficient.

The water is where the action is. There are better hydraulic fluids, to be sure, but they're expensive and a lot more toxic.