EPA: 'Fracking' likely polluted town's water

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.

Delaware River Basin Fracking Vote Cancelled

The vote that was scheduled to take place on proposed gas drilling in the Delaware River Valley has been postponed.

The Delaware River Basin Commission postponed the meeting after Delaware's governor announced he would vote no. The commission said it delayed the meeting to give commissioners more time to review the issue but more likely is the fact they probably did not have the votes to move the proposal forward.

Following on the heels of the Obama Administrations delay on the Keystone XL pipeline, this postponement represents another victory for environmentalists who had gathered more than 73,000 signatures on a petition opposing drilling in the watershed.

LINK (Via:The Leader)

My Water's On Fire

The Fracking Song

Little is actually known about the health impacts of drinking methane in the water

Scientists tested water samples taken from 68 private wells in five counties in Pennsylvania and New York to explore accusations that "hydro-fracking" -- a contested technique to extract shale gas -- has contaminated groundwater.

Methane was found in 85 percent of the samples, and at sites within a kilometer (0.6 mile) of active hydraulic-fracturing operations, levels were 17 times higher than in wells far from such operations, said the study by researchers at Duke University in North Carolina.

While some residents have sounded the alarm about running faucets that ignite if a flame is placed nearby, little is actually known about the health impacts of drinking methane in the water, he said.

LINK (Via:The Raw Story)

Pennsylvania allows gas-well frackwater to flow into rivers

No worries! State officials, energy companies and the operators of treatment plants insist that with the right safeguards in place, the practice poses little or no risk to the environment or to the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on those rivers for drinking water.

LINK (Via: Penn Live)

Trout Unlimited Applauds Gas Company Disclosure

Responding to an announcement by Range Resources Corp. that it will disclose the list of chemicals it is using in hydraulic fracturing of gas wells in the Marcellus Shale region in Pa., Trout Unlimited (TU) applauds the energy company for its plan.

"If Range Resources is planning to disclose the chemicals it uses in its drilling operations, there is no reason other companies can't do the same," said Elizabeth Maclin, TU's Vice President for Eastern Conservation. "With thousands of wells being drilled throughout Pennsylvania, knowing what is in fracking fluids is an important step toward protecting the state's natural resources."

LINK (Via: The Outdoor Wire)