EPA Claims

In this article the EPA claims that it will release whether or not hydraulic fracking is polluting drinking water or not by the end of 2012. Even though it seems they would already have more than enough proof to say that it is indeed polluting drinking water. Abraham Lustgarten and Nicholas Kushnetz expressed an area in central Wyoming in which people complained of foul water after fracking began. The waters were tested and it was concluded that there were chemicals that are known to be used in the fracking process in the water. The EPA says the final report will not be released until 2014. The process of hydraulic tracking involves the rapid high-pressure injection of millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals underground. This will release and extract any natural gas that is within shale rock. The EPA will focus on fracking sites in Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Louisiana, Texas and Colorado. For a long time the gas and oil industries have claimed that fracking is a very safe process. However, as Lustgarten and Kushnetz said in their article, the findings of the EPA in Pavillion, Wyoming, did not support this. It found fracking to be a harmful process that is indeed polluting sources of drinking water. The oil and gas industries also concluded that fracking is regulated enough and properly by the states. Environmental activists do not agree with this, they believe that fracking should have a joint regulation between the federal and state agencies. Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey said that the EPA study will provide information to the public and policy makers of the effects of fracking on the water. After the reality has been spread, I predict that the regulations on hydraulic fracking will become stronger.