Colorado's Rocky Mountains and Great Plains have lost national interest in favor of the large deposits of Pierre Shale that dwells deep beneath the soil. Pierre Shale is a fossiliferous, dark-grey rock formed 66 million years ago when the North American Inland Sea receded. Oil and gas companies, who want to frack, and opposing environmental groups are at odds in Colorado, and Latinos are being lured to both sides of the argument, as they make up a good chunk of the state's population.

Sand and chemicals are mixed with pressurized liquid, which is used to fracture subterranean rock by injecting the mixture at high pressure into a wellbore to create small fractures; this is done to increase the rate in which fluids such as petroleum and water, or natural gas and oil can be recovered from subterranean natural reservoirs -- that process is known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." The controversial practice has led to air and water contamination, and radiation exposure by gas production; also infertility, birth defects, and cancer.

Twenty-one percent of Colorado's population is Latino, meaning that Latinos' support on either side of the dispute will be a crucial determinant for the outcome of the shale. The state has been a major oil and gas producer for years, and a place for drilling, but Latinos' opinions are finally being considered on the matter.

"When you have a population that size it's something you just can't overlook," said Jon Haubert, a spokesperson for Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development (CRED), a nonprofit group funded by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and Noble Energy. "How do you ignore one-fifth of the population of the state?"

Although fracking for natural gas and oil is traditionally a Republican agenda, the process does receive bipartisan political support. But that support does not counter the fact that there is loud opposition from Colorado's electorate.

Boulder, Fort Collins and Lafayette voters approved an anti-fracking initiative in November, disregarding an $875,000 push for industry fracking. Sixty percent of the Longmon population voted for an amendment to ban fracking, and deposit its associated waste within city limits.

While public opinion seems to be on the side of the anti-fracking activists, it is general knowledge that oil and gas companies can potentially offer heavy job creation in a state that has an unemployment rate of 6.8 percent.

In contrast, North Dakota has a 2.7 percent unemployment rate, and has a booming drilling, and oil and gas industry there, making high-paying jobs more accessible. That prospect is attractive to a number of jobless Latinos. Advocates for fracking claim that there will be long-lasting, high-paying employment for Coloradans, which includes Latinos. These jobs also offer a higher safety risk than other job industries.

CRED's Jon Haubert suggests that environmental groups mislead the public, and insists on the benefits of hydraulic fracturing.  Haubert states that the public "has been left out of the conversation." He cites EPA reports and those from the Department of Health, saying that anti-fracking groups fail to give any real data, though the same has been said of industry advocates. The section on CRED's website that refers to fracking, featured in English and Spanish, offers an explanation of key facts. The opposition maintains that those facts deceive.

"To the extent that Latinos may be employed in greater numbers either in the oil and gas industry or in the agricultural industry where these wells historically have been placed, it is reasonable to assume that their health and safety risks would be higher," Judith Blackburn of the anti-fracking group Our Longmont wrote in an email to Fox News Latino. She also added that Latinos were in need of healthy, long-term and safe jobs; which isn't promised when working with oil and gas.

Earthworks points to real-life evidence that show the environmental and health impacts of the process, but the scientific community is still divided on the negative effects. Latinos will be divided between economic benefits and environmental disadvantages; many will fall on either side of the crack, depending on individual needs.