EPA Fracking Assessment Exposes Threats to Drinking Water from Oil and Gas

“The Assessment smashes the myth that there can be oil and gas development without impacts to drinking water. Fracking is a complex process that poses a complex array of potential risks to drinking water. The Assessment informs actions we need to take to protect drinking water and public health by outlining the numerous vulnerabilities throughout the fracking water lifecycle.” – John Noël, National Oil & Gas Campaigns Coordinator, Clean Water Action.

Washington DC – Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its long-awaited draft Assessment of the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil & Gas on Drinking Water Resources.

Our nation's drinking water is under pressure from long-standing and emerging contamination issues as well as from impacts of climate change including water shortages. It is more important than ever that EPA and other federal agencies drive the research agenda on significant threats to water resources. The Assessment exposes significant drinking water vulnerabilities and public health risks throughout the lifecycle of hydraulic fracturing.

The research into impacts of oil and gas wastewater disposal on drinking water treatment facilities is of particular interest because of Clean Water Action’s work on drinking water issues and Safe Drinking Water Act implementation. For example, bromides contribute to production of harmful byproducts in the drinking water treatment process. Understanding how bromides in oil and gas wastewater behave in drinking water sources can help prevent increased public health risk and higher costs to Public Water Systems and their consumers.

Due to lack of cooperation from oil and gas companies, EPA failed to conduct prospective case studies, which would have provided valuable information on the lifecycle impacts of a fracking operation from water acquisition through disposal. As we exposed in reports on the Safe Drinking Water Act’s Underground Injection Control program earlier this year, the oil and gas industry is adept at exercising undue influence on laws and regulations which impact their operations and at restricting access to information.  Apparent lack of cooperation in this important research effort is in keeping with that track record.

Modern oil and gas development spread like wildfire across the country before the full scope of its impacts on public health and the environment could be adequately researched. “Policymakers should ‘Put Drinking Water First’ and heed this Assessment’s warnings to make drinking water threats a primary consideration in decisions about oil and gas activities,” said Clean Water Action National Campaigns Director Lynn Thorp.

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Clean Water Action is the nation’s largest grassroots group focused on water, energy and environmental health.  Clean Water Action’s 1 million members participate in Clean Water Action’s programs for clean water, prevention of health-threatening pollution, and creation of environmentally-safe jobs and businesses.  Clean Water Action’s nonpartisan campaigns empower people to make democracy work.