Posted on 12/10/2011 6:37:42 AM PST by Hojczyk
The Environmental Protection Agency said this week that chemicals from "fracking," a controversial method of extracting natural gas from the ground, have polluted groundwater in Wyoming.
The findings represent the first time in the heated debate over fracking that the agency has drawn such a connection, which has long been claimed by environmental activists.
Doug Hock a spokesman for Encana, said concerns about the pollution of drinking water "are not borne out by the facts." The EPA's test wells, he noted, were far below the depth of drinking water wells.
"At a depth where you would expect to find hydrocarbons, they found hydrocarbons. In drinking wells, they found no impacts due to oil and gas," he said.
"We've done extensive testing, the state has done extensive testing, and never have we found the effects of oil and gas in these drinking water wells," Hock said.
The EPA, however, is worried that this may change.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
we wouldnt want the zer0bama imperative of destroying America, to slow down just because of an impending election now do we???
This release by the EPA was red meat for the enviro-whackos to distract them from other disappointments with the Obama Administration.
They are running around now using terms like “smoking gun” and “proof positive” that hydraulic fracturing is unsafe.
They don’t care that they will have egg on their face when the FACTS come out.
My moonbat SIL has been told that fracking causes earthquakes. She believes this.
Turn off the alarm on ‘fracking’ and flush the EPA along with other equally harmful agencies of the central socialist government.
The EPA is unsafe for children and other living things.
Kill it! Kill it with fire!!
This very well might be true, but since the information is coming from the EPA, I have to assume they are lying.
Considering that fracking takes place thousands of feet below ground and groundwater is about a 100 feet below ground, I’d have to say you are right in your judgment of the EPA.
Just another excuse to keep Government’s heel on the throat of our freedoms and energy independence. Can’t have the peasants gaining access to a roaring economy and cheap energy - the reduces the need for Big Government in their lives.
In Wyoming (elevation circa 5000 feet) some ground water could be thousands of feet below the surface. But the oil would still be thousands of feet below that.
But the EPA is still lying. That is what they do.
I wonder why getting accessible oil out the ground never presented that ground water problem to the degree that it all had to be banned?
that was a projected possible cause of the Oklahoma earthquakes a couple of weeks ago, that appeared in the MSM. ......I worked with a Thai Chemist a few years ago....he had gone home to Thailand a few months after the Boxing day earthquakes in 2004 and subsequent tsunamis...and he was informed by his relatives that everyone knew it was Yankee imperialist dog oil drilling that caused that subduction zone earthquake.
A friend of mine told me that as well. I immediately LOLed and then realized, by the look on his face, that he was totally serious!
• Fracking contaminates drinking water. One claim is that fracking creates cracks in rock formations that allow chemicals to leach into sources of fresh water. The problem with this argument is that the average shale formation is thousands of feet underground, while the average drinking well or aquifer is a few hundred feet deep. Separating the two is solid rock. This geological reality explains why EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, a determined enemy of fossil fuels, recently told Congress that there have been no “proven cases where the fracking process itself has affected water.”
Look at all the earthquakes all over the world. I had no idea we were doing some much FRACKING!
By my definition, if subterranean water is “thousands of feet” below the surface, it is not “ground water.”
I can dream up a situation in which any improperly completed oil or gas well pollutes fresh ground water. Fracking has been around at least 50 years.
Obama’s hysteria is driven by politics (as if people on this forum didn’t know that! LOL).
Oldplayer
Ahh, the PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE - Agenda 21 rears its ugly head!
There is NO EVIDENCE that fracking pollutes water wells. NONE! The real issue is the disposal of the WATER used because of the “salt” it brings back up, not the fracking chemicals. This is easily dealt with and reputable companies automatically do this.
...which has long been claimed by environmental activists...
...the state has done extensive testing, and never have we found the effects of oil and gas in these drinking water wells,"
In other words, there are wild unsubstantiated claims, and then there are verifiable, reproducible test results. Which side do you think the EPA and MSM focuses on? I'll give you three guesses...nah, you'll only need one.
There, fixed it.
Oldplayer
This is just another power play by the Left to shut down energy production in the USA. The EPA has polluted more ground water than fracking ever will by forcing the oil companies to add a carcinogen, MTBE, to gasoline to “reduce air pollution.”
Gas stations all over the US had to dig up their storage tanks at great expense, after it became evident that EPA-mandated MTBE was leaking into the water table. These ignorant “experts” are dangerous, as virtually all government bureaucrats with power are.
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