Oil and Gas Drilling

Introduction

Eastern El Paso county is a site where drilling for oil and gas may soon begin, using the controversial practice of fracking. The February 26 2012 edition of The Denver Post reported that very high levels of ozone, higher than those in New York City, have been identified in eastern Utah, a scarcely populated part of the west, but characterized by extensive oil and gas extraction. Ozone has potential serious health effects for people who have asthma and other respiratory problems. There may also be serious health risks for the workers who work with the fracking chemicals as well as for people living nearby.

Discussion

Ozone also is present in the atmosphere but at widely differing concentrations. Ozone is the common name for triatomic oxygen, or O3. Ozone is present in minuscule amounts in the lower atmosphere (generally less than one part per 100 million) but is found in much higher concentrations in a layer high above Earth's surface called the ozone layer. This layer is present in a thermal layer of the atmosphere called the stratosphere, which exists from about 6 to about 30 mi. (miles) above the surface of the Earth. Ozone, at ground level, acts as a respiratory irritant, and is produced as a by-product of combustion, such as the burning of fossil fuels by automobiles, power plants, and other items of urban infrastructure (Greene, 87). Temperature plays a role in the concentration of ozone—therefore, hot summer days in large urban areas exhibit the highest risk of ozone-induced respiratory distress such as asthma attacks, and there is clear evidence of increased emergency room visits for asthma attacks on summer days in which elevated ozone levels have been recorded.

Many large cities now issue ozone warnings, advising susceptible individuals to stay indoors on days in which dangerous ground-level ozone limits may be achieved. At the level of the ozone layer, however, high up in the stratosphere, ozone is absolutely vital to life. Here, ozone acts as a shield, protecting the surface of the Earth from deadly ultraviolet (UV) radiation emitted by the sun by incorporating the UV light into a complex, self-sustaining chemical reaction. If the ozone layer were not present, it is likely that most life on Earth would not be able to survive open exposure on a sunny day, including humans. Unfortunately, man-made chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were used as refrigerants for much of the 20th century, and these chemicals had a tendency to reach stratospheric heights—whereby these CFCs worked to destroy ozone and allow more UV light to strike Earth's surface. The result was a depletion of the ozone layer called the ozone hole. This “hole” in Earth's ozone layer was, and is, concentrated over the South Polar regions (Antarctica) because the chemical reaction that allows CFCs to destroy ozone progresses faster as the temperature of the air drops, and cold, snowy Antarctica has some of the coldest air on the planet.

Fortunately, an international agreement was signed in 1987 that called for the ...