What is the Fracking issue about?
There has been US-wide water contamination occuring through the process of natural gas drilling. In natural gas drilling, chemical-added waters are used to rupture rock underground and allow trapped gas to rise to the surface for energy. It is often promoted often as a safer replacement for oil. Currently, there are no regulations in place for the process of treating these waters that were used to extract the natural gas.
Drilling has begun reaching the East Coast, which is home to a massive underground supply of natural gas. NYC has recently caught onto the drilling issue, as its water supply could also potentially become mixed with various toxins as many other water supplies already have in the nation.
Proper filtration systems for many of the chemicals used in the water either don't exist as many particles are too small to filter given current technology (and in part because many of the companies' chemical lists are kept under trademark). Furthermore, any filtration process has gone unenforced by the EPA or state equivalents, causing significant damage to water supplies (i.e. 70 river miles of water in Pittsburgh affected; 800,000 houses unable to drink the water).
Ultimately, as we are seeing countless high-energy output clean technologies emerge for support and investment, natural gas drilling industrialization-era techniques may not be so vital at this stage. While it seems clear to many that the drinking water shouldn't be teaming with formaldehyde and other such chemicals, it has become a campaign amongst New Yorkers as drilling sites in the state may now begin to activate in spite of such rational concerns.
