EPA's Fracking Finding Misled on Threat to Drinking Water, Scientists Conclude

[Donkees]

The EPA water study, launched five years ago at the behest of Congress, was supposed to provide critical information about fracking's safety "so that the American people can be confident that their drinking water is pure and uncontaminated," a top EPA official said at a 2011 hearing.

But the report was delayed repeatedly, largely because the EPA failed to get any prospective (or baseline) samples of water before, during and after fracking. Such data would have allowed EPA researchers to gauge whether fracking had affected water quality over time.

EPA had planned to conduct such research, but its efforts were stymied by oil and gas companies' unwillingness to allow EPA scientists to monitor their activities, and by an Obama White House unwilling to expend political capital to push the industry, an InsideClimate News report showed.

Still, the EPA's draft report confirmed for the first time that there were "specific instances" when fracking "led to impacts on drinking water resources, including contamination of drinking water wells."

The finding was a notable reversal for the Obama administration, which, like its predecessors, had long insisted that fracking did not pose a threat to drinking water.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12082016/epa-mislead-public-fracking-water-conclusion-its-own-scientists-conclude

[Javaman]

1. water on fire