A THREATENED fish has been fracked to within an inch of its life. Chemicals used in the controversial extraction process spilled into a river in 2007, killing off the local population of the vulnerable blackside dace.
Fracking is a way of extracting natural gas by pumping a cocktail of chemicals underground to crack open shale rock, releasing the gas trapped within. One of the reasons it is controversial is because of concerns that the chemicals might contaminate drinking water, although the evidence for this is weak. In all the kerfuffle, little attention has been paid to fracking's effects on ecosystems.
Yet, in May and June 2007, fracking chemicals leaked into a 2-kilometre stretch of Acorn Fork Creek in Kentucky. The chemicals were being stored in surface pits, which overflowed. The creek turned acidic and all visible life forms died.
"This may be the first report of effects on aquatic biota," says Diana Papoulias of the US Geological Survey, who investigated the incident with Anthony Velasco of the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Frankfort, Kentucky. They examined 45 fish from the polluted stretch, belonging to two species, and found severe gill lesions. Moving healthy fish into the leak zone caused them to develop lesions within hours (Southeastern Naturalist, vol 12, p 92).
Acorn Fork Creek is one of the few remaining habitats for Chrosomus cumberlandensis blackside dace. Papoulias couldn't find any alive in the worst-affected stretch. Dace in neighbouring regions were clearly distressed: they were moving slowly, rocking back and forth just beneath the surface.
As fracking often takes place in remote areas, it's unclear how frequent such events are. "This accident was not reported by the company," says Papoulias, "but by a resident who noticed the water turned red and fish had died."
This article will appear in print under the headline "Fracking kills fish"
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