A Uni­ver­sity of Texas (UT) research team is per­form­ing a self-funded $300,000 study that is look­ing into the poli­cies and envi­ron­men­tal issues sur­round­ing hydraulic frac­tur­ing. Dur­ing hydraulic frac­tur­ing, a mix­ture com­posed or mostly water that is mixed with sand and chem­i­cals is injected under high pres­sures in the gas pro­duc­ing for­ma­tions. This process cre­ates frac­tures in the for­ma­tion, which allows the recov­ery of more gas.