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Hydraulic fracturing (fracing) is a drilling technique that was developed by Halliburton. Millions of gallons of fresh water, along with sand, and cancer-causing and toxic chemicals are injected under high pressure miles down the drilling hole to fracture the limestone shale and release the oil and gas trapped within.

In 2005, at the urging of Dick Cheney, former Halliburton CEO, Congress exempt fracing from the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. In 2001, Cheney’s energy task force report "touted" benefits and ignored consequences. His office was "involved in discussions about how fracturing should be portrayed in the [EPA] report." Halliburton earns about $1.5 BILLION annually from hydraulic fracturing. (Ibid)

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Just how cold and cruel is Halliburton?
One of the most outrageous cases of contamination happened to Cathy Behr, an emergency room nurse in Durango, CO, who treated an oil field worker who was splashed with fracing fluid. From A Toxic Spew? Officials worry about impact of 'fracking' of oil and gas.
Cathy Behr says she won't forget the smell that nearly killed her. An emergency-room nurse in Durango, Colo.'s Mercy Regional Medical Center, Behr was working the April 17 day shift when Clinton Marshall arrived complaining of nausea and headaches. An employee at an energy-services company, Weatherford International, Marshall, according to Behr, said that he was caught in a "fracturing-fluid" spill. [Fracturing chemicals are routinely used on oil and gas wells where they are pumped deep into the ground to crack rock seams and increase production.] The chemical stench coming off Marshall's boots was buckling, says Behr. Mercy officials took no chances. They evacuated and locked down the ER, and its staff was instructed to don protective masks and gowns. But by the time those precautions were enacted, Behr had been nursing Marshall for 10 minutes--unprotected. "I honestly thought the response was a little overkill, but good practice," says Behr, 54, a 20-year veteran at Mercy.
A few days later, Behr's skin turned yellow. She began vomiting and retaining fluid. Her husband rushed her to Mercy where Behr was admitted to the ICU with a swollen liver, erratic blood counts and lungs filling with fluid. "I couldn't breath," she recalls. "I was drowning from the inside out." The diagnosis: chemical poisoning. The makers of the suspected chemical, Weatherford, tell NEWSWEEK that they aren't sure if their brand of fracking fluid can be blamed for her illness.

Cathy Behr almost died! From DRILL FOR NATURAL GAS, POLLUTE WATER:

...The worker was released. But a few days later Behr lay in critical condition facing multiple organ failure.

To save Behr’s life, her doctors needed to know the chemicals involved but they were only given vague information. The information is considered proprietary and Halliburton threatened to pull all its products out of Colorado rather than give up the recipe information Behr’s doctors needed to save her life.
Weeks later, after Behr was recovering, her doctor finally learned the details of the chemicals involved but he is sworn to secrecy.

On October 31, 2007, the U.S. House of Representative's Oversight and Government Reform Committee began hearings investigating fracing.

Hearing statements by scientists and national defense council analyst, other experts and landowners found:

...gas companies not only injected diesel fuel into the fracking liquid as a part of their drilling, but also injected benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene into the liquid which in turn contaminated drinking water, causing serious physical ailments to residents.
...we have identified...245 different chemicals, 92% of which have adverse health effects.

~Dr. Theo Colborn, Ph.D.
President, Endocrine Disruption Exchange link

And yes. It gets worse