How does one even extract natural gas and oils? Once the injection process is completed, the initial pressure of the rock formation that they injected the solution into causes fluid to return to the surface via the wellbore. This fluid may contain the injected chemicals plus naturally occurring materials. These naturally occurring materials can be anything from brines and metals to radionuclides and hydrocarbons. The flowback and produced water is typically stored on site of the initial fracturing. Normally, they will be stored in tanks or large pits before treatment, disposal or recycling.
In many cases unfortunately, the excess chemicals and waste is injected underground for disposal. In the areas where that disposal option is not available to them, it will more than likely be treated and reused. Or it can be processed by a wastewater treatment facility. Afterwards it can then be discharged to surface water. So now that you know what exactly hydraulic fracturing is, and how they are disposing of it, you may start to see some of the initial problems that this may