Fracturing redraws the American landscape

Hydraulic fracturing, used to recover shale gas entails drilling many wells across the United States. These wells are unexpected money to the owners of the land sources. But they can also be sources of discomfort: they make noise, smell bad and cause many comings and goings and, 24 hours 24, it is not the boss of Exxon who say otherwise.

In October 2013, the Wall Street Journal want to answer the question: how many Americans live near an oil or gas and undergo its advantages and disadvantages? At least 15.3 million live within 1.5 kilometers, the same as the population of New York.

Using the database of the specialized site DrillingInfo and Natural Resources Department of Ohio, the Wall Street Journal has mapped all the wells in eleven states producing more energy. The reporter separate wells into two categories: those built before 2000 and those built after the first few uses modern fracturing techniques. The result is striking in some counties. Handle existing well before 2000 in Johnson County, there has been more than 3,900 at the end of 2012.

 

With the help of a SQL server, the Wall Street Journal has crossed the database wells with census . Drawing a circle around a mile of each well on a software geographic information system , the computer has selected the percentage of population. Summing the eleven states , we arrive at 15.3 million Americans.

The analysis and aggregation of data allows us to explore other aspects of this drilling . During four months of work , EnergyWire leaned on oil spills and gas. In 2012, these represented leaks more than the oil spill caused by the Exxon Valdez in 1989. An increase of nearly 17% since 2010.

Data on these leaks were rather complicated to get to EnergyWire . Whether they are registered, they are rarely published . Retrieve the records had to be done state by state , either through long spreadsheet , or by calling the data thanks to the law on freedom of information. As for companies , if they broadcast some information on wells, but rather the production thereof . And they make it impossible aggregation .