The #EPA Once Said Fracking Did Not Cause Widespread Water #Contamination. Not Anymore.
▻https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13122016/fracking-water-contamination-oil-gas-hydraulic-fracturing-epa-tru
The new final version does not conclude that there is widespread #pollution of drinking water, cautioned Robert Jackson, professor of environment and energy at Stanford University. The available data do not support that either. Rather, the report helps to characterize and assess risk throughout the fracking process, from the withdrawal of water to be mixed with chemicals, through the mixing stage, injection of fracking fluid into an oil or gas well, handling of the water that returns up the well and the eventual disposal of the waste.
“These activities can impact drinking water resources under some circumstances,” the report said.
“Cases of impacts were identified for all stages of the hydraulic fracturing water cycle,” it continued. “Identified impacts generally occurred near hydraulically fractured oil and gas production wells and ranged in severity from temporary changes in water quality to contamination that made private drinking water wells unusable.”
Jackson said the new report more closely reflects what other fracking research has found. “The revised summary much more accurately captures the content of the original report and the state of science today,” he said. “Fracking writ large doesn’t usually contaminate water but it has and the report acknowledges different ways that that happens.”
