Issues

EPA’s Fracking Study Is Not Definitive

Five years after the federal government’s request for a report on the drinking water quality impact of hydraulic fracturing, the EPA released its study. “Fracking” is the practice of injecting many gallons of water, mixed with other chemicals, into geological formations at high speed, breaking the formations and extracting oil and gas from within. While the study concludes that there is no evidence of fracking being inherently harmful to drinking water, the EPA does say that in some areas, contamination can occur (i.e. areas of oils spills, poorly constructed wells, etc.). However, environmental groups argue that there is very little field data in the study that supports the conclusion. The EPA plans to use tracers to monitor whether the chemicals used in fracking are leaking into drinking water supplies. This data would indicate whether fracking is in fact causing contamination or not. See: http://cen.acs.org/articles/93/i24/Fracking-Study-Yields-Mixed-Results.html.

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