EPA pollution finding shakes up ‘fracking’ debate

A preliminary Environmental Protection Agency report on apparent groundwater contamination in Wyoming from the gas drilling method called hydraulic fracturing could shake up the battle over federal regulation of the practice.

EPA released a draft report Thursday with results of groundwater monitoring in a Wyoming natural gas field where drinking-well owners had complained of odor and poor taste.

The monitoring showed chemical contamination that EPA said likely stems from hydraulic fracturing — a finding that, if borne out, would undercut industry claims that there’s no evidence that the method dubbed “fracking” is polluting groundwater.

From EPA’s summary:

EPA’s analysis of samples taken from the Agency’s deep monitoring wells in the aquifer indicates detection of synthetic chemicals, like glycols and alcohols consistent with gas production and hydraulic fracturing fluids, benzene concentrations well above Safe Drinking Water Act standards and high methane levels. Given the area’s complex geology and the proximity of drinking water wells to ground water contamination, EPA is concerned about the movement of contaminants within the aquifer and the safety of drinking water wells over time.

In addition, EPA said that findings from private and public drinking-water wells detected “methane, other petroleum hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds” and that “The presence of these compounds is consistent with migration from areas of gas production.” 

EPA said that the levels are “generally below” health and safety standards, meaning they don't pose a serious risk to the public.

EPA is submitting the draft report for peer review by independent scientists.

Fracking involves high-pressure injections of water, chemicals and sand into rock formations, which open up cracks that enable trapped gas to flow. The method has created a natural gas boom in many states, but it carries with it concerns about pollution.

EPA took pains Thursday to call the gas development in Pavillion, Wyo., atypical for wells developed with hydraulic fracturing because the fracking “is taking place in and below the drinking water aquifer and in close proximity to drinking water wells.”

Nonetheless, several environmental groups pushing for expanded federal oversight of fracking — including the end of a 2005 law preventing EPA regulation under a key Safe Drinking Water Act program — pounced on the report Thursday.

“With this finding by the Environmental Protection Agency, we can confirm what residents of the gas fields have been saying all along: The chemicals used in fracking can indeed migrate into groundwater,” said Jessica Ennis, a policy associate with the group Earthjustice.

“This lays an oil and gas industry myth to rest once and for all. With this proof in hand, there must be absolutely no more delay in closing the loopholes that leave our drinking water sources vulnerable to toxic chemicals,” she said.

But Doug Hock, a spokesman for Encana, the oil-and-gas company that owns the Wyoming field, disputed the report. “We don’t think it is a sound probability at all,” he said of EPA’s finding that fracking is likely the cause of the groundwater contamination in Pavillion.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, bashed the report, calling it “part of President Obama's war on fossil fuels.”

"EPA's conclusions are not based on sound science but rather on political science. Its findings are premature, given that the Agency has not gone through the necessary peer-review process, and there are still serious outstanding questions regarding EPA's data and methodology," he said in a statement.