Great Lakes Drilling

3 Pages 712 Words

The Risk of Pollution from Drilling under the Great Lakes is to great



The Great Lakes contain 20 percent of the world’s freshwater and is home to

more than 35 million people. Currently there is a ban against directional drilling

under the Great Lakes. Directional drilling enables oil and gas deposits beneath the

lakes to be tapped from a distance. Regulations require that the rig is located 1,500

feet or more inland from the shore, where a vertical bore is drilled to the depth of

approximately 1000 feet. The hole is then deviated at an angle toward the bedrock

underlying the lake until it reaches oil or gas deposits some 4,900 feet beneath the

water’s surface. (1) There is the fear that with rising gas prices, reliance on foreign

oil, and a president who is sympathetic to the oil industry, that attempts may be made

to reverse the ban. If drilling were allowed there is the danger of possible accidents,

causing health risks to humans, fish and wildlife and devastation to the tourism

industry of the area. The risks of pollution from oil and gas drilling under the

Great Lakes far outweigh any benefits gained from siphoning off fossil fuels.

Although accidents are rare, they do happen. The Department of Environmental

Quality (DEQ) claims that directional drilling does not endanger Lake Michigan

because the wells are drilled through bedrock thousands of feet beneath the bottom of

the lake and that the rock acts as an impermeable seal that will not allow gas or oil to





leak in to the water. The greatest potential risk to the environment comes at the well

site.The national Wildlife Federation points out that the risk at the well site also

includes quality of life impact for people who live, work and recreate in the areas where

the drilling occurs. According to the National Response Center, which moniters spills of

oil and other hazardou...