If oil and gas development came to northwestern South Dakota, hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” would come as well.
And there’s some debate in the public sector on the environmental and human health impacts surrounding this process.
Fracking and horizontal drilling technologies are almost completely responsible for the recent oil boom in North Dakota. The petroleum hydrocarbons in the Williston Basin are largely trapped in porous shale rock formations. The most effective way to access these trapped hydrocarbons is through a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
