Natural gas drilling endangering U.S. water supplies
November 14th, 2008An investigation by ProPublica found that the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing may be threatening the nation’s increasingly precious drinking water supply.
ProPublica studied Sublette County, Wyoming and six other contamination sites and found that water contamination in drilling areas around the country is far more prevalent than the EPA asserts. Tests on well water in Sublette County showed it contained benzene, a chemical believed to cause aplastic anemia and leukemia, in a concentration 1,500 times the level safe for people.
Hydraulic fracturing shoots vast amounts of water, sand and chemicals several miles underground to break apart rock and release natural gas. The process has been considered safe since a 2004 study (PDF) by the Environmental Protection Agency found that it posed no risk to drinking water. After that study, Congress even exempted hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act. Today fracturing is used in nine out of 10 natural gas wells in the United States.
ProPublica’s investigation found that the 2004 EPA study was not as conclusive as it claimed to be. Close review showed that the body of the study contains damaging information that wasn’t mentioned in the conclusion. Rather, the study foreshadowed many of the problems now being reported across the country.
The contamination in Sublette County is significant because it is the first to be documented by a federal agency, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. But more than 1,000 other cases of contamination have been documented by courts and state and local governments in Colorado, New Mexico, Alabama, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The precise nature and concentrations of the chemicals used by industry are considered trade secrets. Not even the EPA knows exactly what’s in the drilling fluids. Of the 300-odd compounds that private researchers and the Bureau of Land Management suspect are being used, 65 are listed as hazardous by the federal government. Many of the rest are unstudied and unregulated.