Republished from ProPublica.com – Feb 11, 2011

by Nicholad Kusnetz

The EPA has proposed examining every aspect of hydraulic fracturing,
from water withdrawals to waste disposal, according to a draft plan the
agency released Tuesday. If the study goes forward as planned, it would
be the most comprehensive investigation of whether the drilling
technique risks polluting drinking water near oil and gas wells across
the nation.

The agency wants to look at the potential impacts on
drinking water of each stage involved in hydraulic fracturing, where
drillers mix water with chemicals and sand and inject the fluid into
wells to release oil or natural gas. In addition to examining the actual
injection, the study would look at withdrawals, the mixing of the
chemicals, and wastewater management and disposal. The agency, under a
mandate from Congress, will only look at the impact of these practices
on drinking water.

The agency’s scientific advisory board
will review the draft plan on March 7-8 and will allow for public
comments then. The EPA will consider any recommendations from the board
and then begin the study promptly, it said in a news release . A preliminary report should be ready by the end of next year, the release said, with a full report expected in 2014.

A statement from the oil and gas industry group Energy in Depth gave a lukewarm assessment of the draft.

“Our
guys are and will continue to be supportive of a study approach that’s
based on the science, true to its original intent and scope,” the
statement read. “But at first blush, this document doesn’t appear to
definitively say whether it’s an approach EPA will ultimately take.”

The study, announced in March , comes amid rising public concern about the safety of fracking, as ProPublica has been reporting for years. While it remains unclear whether the actual fracturing process has contaminated drinking water, there have been more than 1,000 reports around the country of contamination related to drilling, as we reported in 2008. In September 2010, the EPA warned residents of a Wyoming town
not to drink their well water and to use fans while showering to avoid
the risk of explosion. Investigators found methane and other chemicals
associated with drilling in the water, but they had not determined the
cause of the contamination.

Drillers have been fracking wells for
decades, but with the rise of horizontal drilling into unconventional
formations like shale, they are injecting far more water and chemicals
underground than ever before. The EPA proposal notes that 603 rigs were
drilling horizontal wells in June 2010, more than twice as many as were
operating a year earlier. Horizontal wells can require millions of
gallons of water per well, a much greater volume than in conventional
wells.

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