Be sure to not confuse shale oil with oil shale. Two completely different things. We've been discussing fracking to liberate hdrocarbons from shale source rocks where the hydrocarbons have matured into oil and gas, but have not migrated out of the source rock shales. With oil shale, the organic material is there - in great abundance - but has not matured past the kerogen stage. We cannot just frack the drill holes and recover the hydrocarbons because kerogen is not going to flow without heating it up quite a bit. There has been talk of pumping steam into the ground to liberate it, but that takes a big chunk out of the final energy return. Even mining the shale still requires heating and other expensive processes to crack the oil into something useful. Huge amounts of water is also required. In the beautiful, but arid mountains of Colorado, where every drop of the Colorado River is used seven times, fought over, and doesn't even reach the sea anymore, this is not going to happen any time soon.

That we are using new and expensive technology to remove oil and gas from the source rocks is proof that the low hanging fruit of easy oil is gone. We have to climb higher and higher into the tree to get what we need, on longer and more expensive ladders.

Many of the areas that are reporting methane in their water wells have historically had problems with just this problem. Their bedrock is source rock, after all, and some of those hydrocarbons, especially the gasses, have been migrating up fractures and faults for a long time. Fracking has the potential of exaserbating the situation, but the actually study of this has been wanting. Better surveys of hydrocarbons in water wells before fracking commences would be quite helpful.

Regions that are experiencing a boom in employment due to new drilling must remember what every resource geologist knows: booms are followed by busts. Over-building infrastructure and expecting the boom to go on for a long time is a recipe for disaster down the road. Towns should not go into long term debt during the frenzy.

Companies should release fracking formulas so that wells can be monitored for these chemicals but I'm not holding my breath. Colorado is preposing such a law, but by the time it passed and clears the courts, it will be too late for the already affected groundwater.

We need the hydrocarbons but I fear that we may do more long term damage for short term gain. I've said it before on this forum and I'll say it again: our thirst and hunger for earth resources knows no limits. We'll drill and mine it all, no corner of the earth is safe for long if what we want lies under its surface.