Annual John R. Freeman Lecture: Shale Gas Development: A Big Environmental Experiment? John Cherry Professor Emeritus, University of Waterloo and Adjunct Professor, University of Guelph Thursday, April 9, 2015 MIT’s Tang Center (E51), 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 6:00 PM Reception; 7:00 PM Lecture Hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') for shale gas/oil has grown rapidly in the past dozen years in the US and Western Canada. In many other regions globally, where government and industry would like to see rapid development, public resistance is restrictive. This may be attributed in large part to the lack of a social license, an unexpected public response to a grand new energy source resulting from impressive technology innovations over two decades of perseverance. Concerns about shale gas include: contamination of groundwater and surface water, water resource depletion, human health, community deterioration, ecological and landscape alterations and greenhouse gas emissions. Some of the environmental uncertainties can be minimized by best practices and more demanding regulations with inspection and penalties. But the most important questions cannot be answered with strong scientific evidence because the needed research and monitoring simply has not been done. The largest uncertainties concern stray gas (methane) escape into groundwater and the atmosphere, a result of inadequate cement seals in the gas wells, and a longstanding problem for all types of oil and gas wells. Recently there has been increased engagement by the scientific community in debating the issues, but without much agreement, supporting claims by some that shale gas development is an immense experiment on the environment. With emphasis on groundwater issues, this talk examines the nature of the shale gas debate and the claim that shale gas is an environmental experiment. Examination of evidence includes expert panel reports from governments in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia, and published literature ranging from propaganda, to maturing but largely unreproducible science. Experiment: "A procedure tried on the chance of success or to test a hypothesis" The Oxford Reference Dictionary, 1986. Registration Deadline: Friday, April 3, 2015 Registration Fees: Free to all Members and Non-Members Information/Registration: Register to attend this lecture online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HX3HRRR. Supported by the staff of The Engineering Center Education Trust