Bad water found at fracking site

Chemicals used to tap natural gas wells in the booming practice known as fracking may be responsible for groundwater contamination in a small town in Wyoming, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday. The finding - the first of its kind for the agency - could pose a major stumbling block to U.S. energy firms, whose rush to employ the new drilling technique has sparked economic booms, soaring land values and political debates in rural Pennsylvania, the North Dakota plains and other areas across the country. EPA researchers studied water pollution complaints in Pavillion, Wyo., for the past three years and found “methane, other petroleum hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds” in the aquifer, possibly as a result of hydraulic fracturing in the area. Fracking uses a mixture of water, sand and chemicals to crack underground rock and allow natural gas to flow freely. Critics have long claimed the technique can contaminate local water supplies, but the gas industry has denied those charges. Some have even questioned the EPA’s role in regulating the fracking boom, saying oversight was best left to state-level regulators. Daniel Kish, senior vice president for policy at the pro-fracking Institute for Energy Research, said the EPA’s preliminary finding on water contamination deserves “the strictest scrutiny” given past reports that were later disproved. “Under Administrator Lisa Jackson, the EPA has played an increasingly politicized role in regulatory enforcement,” Mr. Kish said in a statement Thursday. “Demonstrating the validity of this report in the face of 50 years of safe hydraulic fracturing without any evidence of contamination is a burden that Administrator Jackson must now bear.”...more