On it's own, oil is not magnetic, but MIT researchers say that when mixed with water-repellent nanoparticles that contain iron, the oil can be magnetically separated from the water.

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However, the shale rock containing natural gas is separated from underground water aquifers by impermeable layers of rock that do not allow any hydraulic fracturing fluids to migrate into underground water aquifers.

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By chance his brother, a teacher in Alaska, put him in touch with a small law firm that wanted help representing fishers in Cook Inlet, a body of water physically separated from the spill by the Kenai Peninsula.

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Manhattan, the heart of the city, is an island, separated from all the other boroughs by water.

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The industry argues that this is highly unlikely, as the fraccing takes place a mile or more below drinking water aquifers and is separated from them by thick layers of impermeable rock.

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Now we are living in isolation, separated from fellow New Yorkers by a body of water.

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Fracking takes place thousands of feet below the water table, and fracking zones are typically separated from groundwater by fairly impermeable rocks.

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