Hello friend, within engineering I would recommend applying another mechanism of enhanced recovery of crude, if technology advanced in the preparation of the fracturing fluid perhaps it would not be so polluting to freshwater aquifers found in the subsurface.
Reservoir engineering that is studied within petroleum engineering does not study this practice, as a petroleum engineer I can tell you with all certainty that they did not teach this practice as a crude recovery mechanism, however I think it is a practice in which only its negative environmental impact needs to be improved.
Greetings and thank you for sharing this valuable post.
Glad you found this interesting enough to leave a comment. I actually agree with you on finding a better way to reduce the pollution aspect of the process. Perhaps engineers like yourself need to create more awareness amongst your peers especially those in academia. We've got only one earth, we should take care of it as much as we can!