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.