Editorial: EPA document barrage adds nothing to fracking debate

The way it’s acting, we’d suggest a name change for the EPA. Let’s call it the Environmental Political Agency instead of the Environmental Protection Agency. Weeks late and reeling from criticism about its draft report linking groundwater contamination to hydraulic fracturing used in the oil and gas industry, the EPA took to the offensive and flooded everyone with more than 600 documents detailing its research on Pavillion’s fracking. The report’s release had curious timing when it was first made public. No one seemed to know it was coming. The report became a polarizing point in the debate about fracking. Opponents of fracking believed they finally had the evidence they’ve sought for so long: Scientific proof that hydraulic fracking poisons water supplies. Oil and gas officials assailed the shoddy science and questionable conclusions. Meanwhile, the EPA provided a casebook study for miscommunication, missteps and bad practice. Let’s review: The EPA says the groundwater it tested contained volatile organic compounds that could only have been introduced during the fracking process. Yet, the agency continues to skirt the fact that it didn’t follow correct laboratory procedures when testing the water. The draft report says so. In other words, the agency won’t even hold itself to its own standards. And, you can bet it wouldn’t accept such shoddy work from those it contracts with. The agency would have the public believe that violating these testing standards doesn’t result in a material difference. But, if that’s the case: Why do those standards exist? And, if water contamination is the central issue, how can the agency say for certain that its poor testing methods didn’t botch test results? Quite frankly, the EPA can release as many documents as it wants. Heck, release 6,000 instead of 600. But it still cannot find a credible reason to take it off the hook for poor results. And in science, garbage in will almost certainly yield garbage out. The EPA’s methodology was flawed and so we must only conclude its results are too. The entire handling of the EPA’s Pavillion report suggests something less noble than science going on. It suggests the Obama administration is on a fracking witch hunt and the facts be damned...more