| Title: |
Hydraulic Fracturing or ‘Fracking’ A Short Summary of Current Knowledge and Potential Environmental Impacts
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| Resource Type: |
document --> technical publication --> report
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| Country: |
Ireland
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| Year: |
2012 |
| Availability: |
A Small Scale Study for the Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland) under the Science, Technology, Research & Innovation for the Environment (STRIVE) Programme 2007 – 2013
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| Author 1/Producer: |
Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland)
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| Other Authors/Producers: |
Healy D
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| Author / Producer Type: |
Agency, regulator or other governmental or inter-governmental body
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| Format (e.g. PDF): |
PDF
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EUGRIS Keyword(s): |
Contaminated land-->Contaminants-->Contaminants overview
Contaminated land-->Risk assessment-->Sources
Diffuse pollution-->Sources
Groundwater protection-->Groundwater protection overview
Water resources and their management -->Stresses, quality and ecological status
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| Short description: |
The extraction of shale gas on a commercial scale is an activity that is licensable by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Ireland. While such activity is not likely to occur in the near future, it is likely that permits for exploration in the Lough Allen basin may be sought from the Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources (DoCENR) in the next 2 years, which may seek to perform extraction on a small scale as part of the exploration. Such permit applications may seek approval to use hydraulic fracturing techniques, known as ‘fracking’. This method of gas extraction has never previously been used on a commercial basis in Ireland. It is envisaged that the EPA will be a statutory consultee with respect to any Environmental Impact Assessment required for shale gas projects at the exploration stage, and will therefore be required to gain expert knowledge on the environmental impacts in order to fulfil this role. Such knowledge would also be required to assess any licence applications for commercial gas extraction in the future. This preliminary report aims to constrain this knowledge base by documenting what is currently known and understood about fracking and the potential environmental impacts, and will help to form the basis for a larger and more detailed research study.
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Submitted By:
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Professor Paul Bardos WhoDoesWhat?
Last update: 11/05/2012
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