EPA: 'Fracking' likely polluted town's water
Friday, December 9, 2011 at 12:00AM
A controversial method of drilling for oil and natural gas appears to be the cause of groundwater pollution in a central Wyoming town, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.
The EPA last month said it had found compounds associated with chemicals used in the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the groundwater beneath Pavillion. Many residents say their well water has reeked of chemicals since the drilling began there and first complained to the EPA in 2008.
But until Thursday, the EPA said it could not speculate on where the contaminants came from.
In the draft report (.pdf) released Thursday, the EPA said that "the explanation best fitting the data ... is that constituents associated with hydraulic fracturing have been released into the Wind River drinking water aquifer."
LINK (Via: MSNBC)
Crackpot Senator James Inhofe, the senior Republican on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said this is more evidence of the Obama administration agenda to shut down natural gas production and blasted the report as political science.
Hey Senator, regardless of your opinion on the report, how about a little sympathy for the people of Pavillion? In 2009 the EPA advised Pavillion residents not to drink their water and to ventilate their homes when they showered or washed dishes.
Breath deep, the fog you see obscuring this Pavillion home is haze from fracking fluids vaporized in the drilling process.
Oh, about that administration agenda of shutting down oil and gas drilling.
Drilling in this country is at its highest level since 1987. Under Obama, and much to the detriment of the environment, gas drilling in the US has quadrupled.
fracking, hydraulic fracturing in Environment
Reader Comments (7)
Can you say Times Beach?
Money talks. It always will. Mineral rights are now selling for $3-4000 and acre.
The report is full of erroneous information. It's comical that public perception dictates the future of fracking.
You mean to tell me that if we pump a bunch of crap chemicals into the ground to extract oil, that those chemicals will stay in the ground and pollute our water supply? No sh*t. Never saw that coming.
-Sherlock
I live adjacent to Pavillion. This is not of little concern. Wyoming is being extracted for the benefit of stupidity like powering Las Vegas. (?) And the fisheries and mega fauna are suffering in Wyoming because of it!
You mean crap chemicals like petroleum, methane, sulfur etc. that are already there ?
It seems amazing to me that with all of the harmful compounds underground in Yellowstone, it still has some of the best water anywhere.
I don't trust anyone that says they have it all figured out. But then the EPA says "likely" cause.
Worked in fracking in eagle pass in Texas. Watching the fluid pour out of the sides of hills. Very little consideration for anything that got in the way of the flow of money. Fracturing uses many chemicals, to.include hydrochloric acid and ethylene glycol also called antifreeze. I have seen them drill through underground water sources. It breaks my heart that business ethics are only linked to can someone prove we are liable.