ANYONE reading recent letters in opposition to fracking might be pardoned for thinking that the Black Death was being re-introduced.
The other side of the story is contained in a 2012 joint report by the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Engineers.
It concludes that the health, safety and environmental risks can be effectively managed through implementation of best practice and enforced by regulation. The UK has 60 years of experience in managing offshore and onshore oil and gas fields. The risk of water contamination is very low provided hydraulic fracturing takes place many hundreds of metres below aquifers. Any seismic activity caused by fracking is likely to be below that associated with coal mining and settlement of abandoned coal mines.
The report finally concludes that monitoring should take place before, during and after shale gas activity to inform risk assessment. It therefore is hardly sensible to oppose test drilling.
Douglas Summers
Castle Street
Bolton
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