You ’ve probably heard about the controversy over fracking , a method of pulling oil color out of shale . Fracking demand pumping water deeply into the ground to make fractures in rocks — in a best - case scenario , these fractures allow hydrocarbon to well up course . The job is that you ca n’t always control how the rocks fracture , and that mean toxic fluid may leak out into the urine supplying . Unfortunately , there has n’t been a good way to prove that fracking is causing pollution of water supplies , though there is a lot of circumstantial grounds . But that could be about to modify .
Over at Dot Earth , Andrew Revkin calls our aid to BaseTrace , a startup that is make a simple product that could change the future of petroleum extraction . BaseTrace suggest to sow fracking water system with tiny amounts of DNA that would be like a signature attached to the water that ’s move into the Earth . For each fellowship doing the fracking , there would be a unique signature . If a local pool becomes toxic , chemists can taste the waters and look for trace of the DNA . If the DNA bulge out up , they can be sure that fracking is to blame for the contamination — and they can even identify who is responsible .
These “ trackable fluid ” could help us realize how much harm fracking in reality does to the environment . And they could be used to force specific companies to pay for ecosystem cleansing .
BaseTrace has just receive $ 20,000 in come financial support to build up their engineering , and many other company are seek to make their own trackable fluids . This could be a major step toward making fracking safer — by declare companies who do it accountable .
Learn more viaDotEarth
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