{"id":9458,"date":"2015-06-26T05:46:21","date_gmt":"2015-06-26T10:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=9458"},"modified":"2015-06-26T05:46:21","modified_gmt":"2015-06-26T10:46:21","slug":"epas-new-fracking-study-a-close-look-at-the-numbers-buried-in-the-fine-print","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=9458","title":{"rendered":"EPA’s New Fracking Study: A Close Look at the Numbers Buried in the Fine Print"},"content":{"rendered":"

EPA’s New Fracking Study: A Close Look at the Numbers Buried in the Fine Print<\/a><\/h3>\n

When\u00a0EPA<\/span>\u2019s long-awaited draft assessment on fracking and drinking water supplies was released, the oil and gas industry\u00a0triumphantly focused<\/a>\u00a0on a headline-making sentence: \u201cWe did not find evidence of widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United\u00a0States.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for fracking\u2019s backers, a sense of victory may prove to be\u00a0fleeting.<\/p>\n

EPA<\/span>\u2019s\u00a0draft assessment\u00a0<\/a>made one thing clear: fracking has repeatedly contaminated drinking water supplies (a fact that the industry has long aggressively\u00a0denied).<\/p>\n

Indeed, the federal government\u2019s recognition that fracking can contaminate drinking water supplies may prove to have opened the floodgates, especially since\u00a0EPA<\/span>\u00a0called attention to major gaps in the official record, due in part to\u00a0gag orders<\/a>\u00a0for landowners who settle contamination claims and in part because there simply hasn\u2019t been enough testing to know how widespread problems have\u00a0become.<\/p>\n

And although it\u2019s been less than a month since\u00a0EPA<\/span>\u2019s draft assessment was released, the evidence on fracking\u2019s impacts has continued to roll\u00a0in.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0in Texas\u2019 Barnett shale found high levels of pollutants \u2013 volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, and known carcinogens \u2013 in many people\u2019s drinking water, based on testing from over 500 water wells. The contaminants found were associated with the shale drilling industry, but the researchers cautioned it was too soon to say whether the industry actually caused the\u00a0contamination.<\/p>\n

But the association was strong, the researchers said. \u201cIn the counties where there is more unconventional oil and gas development, the chemicals are worse,\u201d lead researcher Zachariah Hildenbrand\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Inside Climate News. \u201cThey’re in water in higher concentrations and more prevalent among the wells. As you get away from the drilling, water quality gets better. There’s no doubt about\u00a0it.\u201d<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPA’s New Fracking Study: A Close Look at the Numbers Buried in the Fine Print When\u00a0EPA\u2019s long-awaited draft assessment on fracking and drinking water supplies was released, the oil and gas industry\u00a0triumphantly focused\u00a0on a headline-making sentence: \u201cWe did not find evidence of widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United\u00a0States.\u201d But for fracking\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[6751,6752,5317,1470,331,412,6750,5617,6753,723,866,4845],"class_list":["post-9458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-carcinogens","tag-contaminants","tag-desmog-blog","tag-epa","tag-fracking","tag-hydraulic-fracturing","tag-organic-compounds","tag-pollutants","tag-shale-drilling","tag-shale-oil","tag-water","tag-water-contamination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9459,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9458\/revisions\/9459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}