eli5 Why is Fracking fluid returned to the hole after extracting the resources?

Question

eli5 Why is Fracking fluid returned to the hole after extracting the resources?

In: 11

Answer 1

Because it’s a cheap way to dispose of it. They often contain huge amounts of salt and other chemicals that you don’t want to dump in some farmer’s field or a river. But also because leaving the hole empty will eventually result in undesirable seismic activity.

Edit: I’m referring here to raw water and it’s disposal. Which isn’t technically frac fluid but it would be understandable for a layman to use them interchangeably. They actually are very different.