Fracking Down the House

  What is "fracking"?  Hydraulic Fracturing, commonly reffered to as "fracking", is one of the most frequently used forms of mining by natural gas companies today.  What I like to call the "secret sauce", is a unknown mixture of water, sand, and undisclosed chemicals, that are shot into the ground, over a mile deep, in order to break up the rock; This causes gases to be released through the new cracks in the rock, and the gas is collected. The secret sauce sometimes mixes with the water wells nearby, contaminating the supply of water for neighboring residents. Other times the waste water seeps back up to the surface, only to be flushed back down into the earth or reused, and also causing bordering lands to start shaking.
   This topic caught my attention when I saw this article, 'Colleyville drill site could be fracked frequently for next year and a half'; Being from Colleyville I have discussed this subject for years. I remember being in high school and my dad had just received a letter in the mail about selling his mineral rights, to this gas companies in order for them to start fracking. When I went back home to visit last September I experienced an earthquake, nothing terribly damaging, around a 3.4. It was not as intense as the after shock of facebook posts about this crazy moment of seismic activity, but still a big deal for a region that does not normally experience earthquakes. Sadly there has been an increase in seismic activity in the Dallas Fort Worth area following the spurring of the hydraulic fracking industry. Fracking Likely Cause Of Weirdly Strong Texas Earthquakes? Dallas Earthquakes May Be Tied To Wastewater Disposal From Fracking Operations, Geophysicist Claims?
  Have there not been studies done? There have been many studies about this form of extracting gases from the ground, but can you really trust everything you read? The University of Texas did a study a couple years ago and found there was no direct link between the use and improper disposal of the secret sauce and contaminated water and earthquakes. However the Huffington Post found a contaminated Director of the U.S. Geological Survey and professor at UT. It turns out the man in charge of the study "sits on the board of Plains Exploration and Production" and was receiving money from this drilling company, which fracks throughout Texas. How is this legal?!!! I can't stop wondering this, especially after reading this article, "U.S. Government Confirms Link Between Earthquakes and Hydraulic Fracturing". This is not breaking news, our own government has known about the affects of fracking for over forty years and has allowed companies to make billions of dollars exploiting a process, even themselves had deemed to be hazardous to the environment.
  Hopefully a light will be shined on this topic sooner. Maybe celebrities can help, I was excited to find an article in my new issue of Rolling Stones about fracking. Anti-fracking celebrities take tour of Marcellus Shale (not a link to the rolling stones article, but about the same people and event)