Fracked Citizens Demand Renewed EPA Investigation

Fracking, shorthand for hydraulic fracturing, of one oil and gas well uses about 40,000 gallons of chemicals that include known carcinogens and toxins. Fracturing fluids are injected into a well under high pressure to create fractures in the source shale strata and hold them open while lubricating the flow of oil or gas through the well bore to the surface. The United States is producing a lot more oil and gas that it has in recent years because of the widespread use of this enhanced recovery technique, and horizontal drilling that allows exploitation of deposits not previously accessible, or not depleted by conventional recovery. About 90% of new wells use fracking to enhance recovery.  The United States is  on track to become the world's largest producer of oil and gas by the end of 2013 according to the Energy Information Administration. But fracking is not without adverse impacts on the environment. A 2011 study by the Environmental Protection Agency found a link between fracking and ground water contamination before it was prematurely shut down under political pressure. In August, 2013 a study sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that the Uintah Basin, one of the largest in the US, leaks methane into the atmosphere at a rate of 3.6 to 7.9% of the natural gas produced, significantly above the 2% rate at which gas becomes more climate warming than coal! Then there are the indications that fracking operations can cause earth tremors, and the horror stories of individuals living near these operations.

a fractured landscape

Some of these affected residents gathered outside the White House in late September and held a press conference to demand that the government reopen investigations on drinking water pollution in Pennsylvania, Wyoming and Texas apparently caused by fracking. The group delivered 250,00 signatures on a petition asking newly installed Administrator Gina McCarthy to restart the investigations abandoned by the agency under industry pressure. The Los Angeles Times reported EPA officials in Washington closed the agency's inquiry into drinking water contamination at Dimrock, Pennsylvania despite evidence of water contamination likely caused by fracking. Agency investigators gathered scientific evidence linking a drilling company, Range Resources, with drinking water contamination in Parker County, Pennsylvania. A Parker County resident reported that methane levels at her home were "18 times the explosive level."
Nevertheless, the agency EPA abandoned another fracking investigation in Pavilion, Wyoming that found benzene levels at 50 times the level considered safe exposure to the carcinogen. It handed over the investigation to the state of Wyoming which will be funded by EnCana, the same drilling company which caused the contamination, for the study.

The American public is becoming increasingly concern about the environmental damage caused by fracking. One million comments were delivered to the Current Occupant objecting to fracking on public lands during the public comment period of BLM's rulemaking for fracturing operations on federal and native lands. The rule will apply to more than 750 million acres of public land and minerals. More than 60 municipalities in the US have passed measures against fracking. Vermont banned fracking in 2012 while both Maryland and New York have imposed moratoriums on permits pending further study of fracking's environmental and health impacts. France passed a nationwide ban on fracking in 2011 that continues under socialist President Francois Hollande The ban was immediately contested by the oil and gas industry, but last Friday France's Constitutional Council upheld the ban's constitutionality. The decision is major victory for environmentalists concerned about fracking's adverse effects on the environment and public health. The US Energy Information Agency thinks France may has as much as 137 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas in shale formations.