EPA probe of fracking contamination includes retrospective
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has acknowledged that a 1987 agency report that established a link between hydraulic fracturing and water contamination in Jackson County, W.Va., is part of its ongoing national study of the effects of the gas extraction method.
The EPA, in a statement released Wednesday evening, also said it has identified several other cases where contamination of drinking water wells allegedly occurred due to nearby gas well "fracking," a 70-year-old technology that pumps millions of gallons of water mixed with chemicals and sand into shale formations deep underground to crack the rock, prop open the voids in the rock and release the gas it contains. Most of the fracking fluid remains underground after fracking is completed.
"As part of the EPA's congressionally mandated study of the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water resources, the agency has identified several circumstances where contamination of wells is alleged to have occurred and is reviewing those cases in depth," the EPA' statement said.
The EPA also noted that, "While it may be difficult to definitively prove a specific link between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water contamination, we know that there are circumstances under which steps in the natural gas extraction process can lead to contamination."
Fracking has come under fire by environmental groups because of concerns the toxic chemicals used could contaminate underground aquifers that provide drinking water for more than 100 million Americans. But the drilling industry has strongly and repeatedly defended the practice, often noting that there are no proven cases of fracking contaminating groundwater.
The 1987 EPA report, which details contamination of water wells near a 4,000-foot-deep gas well fracked by Kaiser Gas Co. in 1982, was uncovered in a records search by the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C., environmental research organization, and made the centerpiece of its report on fracking, "Cracks in the Facade," released Wednesday.
First Published August 5, 2011 12:00 am
