Team finds assorted environmental contaminants in fracking wastewater
Marie Donlon | March 15, 2022A team of chemists from the University of Toledo in Ohio has discovered that wastewater from hydraulic fracturing contains several environmental contaminants — including organic chemicals and metallic elements.
The chemists determined that produced water samples extracted from a fracking site in Texas contained traces of toxic and carcinogenic contaminants, which potentially threaten wildlife and human health.
This, according to the team, is due to the hydraulic fracturing process wherein water is injected into sub-surfaces that contain assorted, often undisclosed additives, intended to help along the drilling process. Once injected, the water reportedly combines with groundwater and then reemerges as the waste byproduct featuring contaminants from both the drilling site and the additives.
The team of chemists reports discovering more than 260 different dissolved organic compounds, including: atrazine (a pesticide); 1,4-dioxane (an organic compound that irritates the eyes and respiratory tract); pyridine (a chemical that reportedly damages the liver); and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs (which are linked to skin, lung, bladder, liver and stomach cancers). Likewise, the researchers discovered traces of almost 30 different elements, including hazardous metals — chromium, cadmium, lead and uranium — rare Earth elements and selenium.
"The discovery of these chemicals in produced water suggests that greater monitoring and remediation efforts are needed since many of them are listed to be dangerous for human health by the World Health Organization," explained Dr. Emanuela Gionfriddo, assistant professor of analytical chemistry in the University of Toledo Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and the School of Green Chemistry and Engineering. "Our comprehensive characterization sheds insight into the processes taking place during hydraulic fracturing and the nature of the geologic formation of each well site."
The article, Unraveling the Complex Composition of Produced Water by Specialized Extraction Methodologies, appears in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.