Ask HN: How close is too close to live to a large fracking operation?

13 points

2 years ago

Auroa, Co. We've been fighting a proposed fracking operation (160 wells on 10 large pads) for a year since it was proposed shortly after our moving into the neighborhood. Ultimately, the application will likely pass and operations will commence. The nearest well will be just over a 1 mile away with most between 1-3 miles and it's likely some wells will drill under us.

My wife is deeply concerned for our family's health - mostly about the VOCs. She's ready to move as soon as the plan is approved. I'm a bit more willing to wait it out a bit and judge the impacts before taking that step. I can accept a dip in home value, a bit of traffic, noise, risks to ground water, etc. However, when all we see is articles about respiratory issues, skin cancer, etc it's harder to justify staying.

The issue is if I search for anything related to health and proximity to fracking operations, it's all very negative. There is one study (https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp.1307732) I found that compares health effects from <1km with <2km but it's hard to see the baseline since it doesn't really compare <2km with >2km which would better reflect our situation at being 1-2 miles away.

Would anyone be able to share any authoritative information or studies that more directly relate to our proximity regarding health effects?

6 comments

6 comments