Environmental Protection Agency Hydraulic Fracturing

nicholas_T's Flickr photostream/Creative Commons

Officials from Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection are scrambling to clean up 8,000 gallons of dangerous drilling fluids that have contaminated a creek in the town of Dimrock, where a series of spills from natural gas production took place last week.  The atrocious spill has killed fish, spread to the area's surface water supply and threatens human health with a "potential carcinogen", and provides a frightening example of why we need to speed our shift to clean energy alternatives and the need for stricter regulation of the natural gas industry.

The spills unleashed a compound manufactured by Halliburton and used by Cabot Oil and Gas in the drilling process of hydraulic fracturing, and neither company has taken responsibility or made any attempts to help in the clean up process.   The incident may be the worst in a series of environmental problems associated with Cabot's drilling, which according to ProPublica includes a recent underground leak that polluted drinking water with metals and methane gas. More

Democrats in Congress have drafted a new bill that would require natural gas companies to report any chemicals used in the potentially hazardous drilling practice of hydraulic fracturing. If passed, the new legislation will overturn a four-year-old law that, according to Congressional Republicans and former Vice President Dick Cheney, promotes growth in the burgeoning gas industry.

Hydraulic fracturing is an advanced drilling technique used by natural gas companies to extract reserves from layers of shale thousands of feet underground. The process involves injecting millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals deep into the earth to create fissures from which the gas floats to the surface.  In order to access the gas reserves, deep wells must be drilled far below the water table. The current exemption for these natural gas companies means that they are not obligated even to tell the public what's being injected into the soil. Opponents of fracturing say that the chemicals being used pose a major threat to the local environment and the health of nearby communities. More