In private conversations, however, high-ranking agency officials acknowledge that fierce pressure from the drilling industry and its powerful allies on Capitol Hill – as well as financial constraints and a delicate policy balance sought by the White House — is squelching their ability to scrutinize not only the effects of oil and gas drilling, but other environmental protections as well.
ProPublica’s Abrahm Lustgarten lines out for us how the EPA has been pressured to back off each time their science finds proof water contaminated by fracking, EPA’s Abandoned Wyoming Fracking Study One Retreat of Many. President Obama should allow the EPA to do its work unfettered by paid industry protectors like Senator Inhofe. The public has a right to know!
- Dimock, PA – “As drilling has resumed in Dimock, so have reports of ongoing methane leaks. On June 24, the National Academy of Sciences published a report by Duke University researchers that underscored a link between the methane contamination in water in Dimock and across the Marcellus shale, and the gas wells being drilled deep below.” The industry says methane is naturally occurring in the water.
- Parker County, Texas – ‘”The methane that was coming out of that well … was about as close a match as you are going to find,” said the consultant, Geoffrey Thyne, a geochemist and expert in unconventional oil and gas who has been a member of both the EPA’s Science Advisory Board for hydraulic fracturing, and a National Research Council committee to examine coalbed methane development.”‘ The EPA stands behind their science. link Keep watching…
- Methane leaking – The real story about methane and the EPA estimates.
- Diesel fuel – did not enforce ban on using diesel in fracking. The Ruggiero’s baseline water test showed their water was clean and safe. Follow up testing after fracking found very high levels of MTBE and additive used in diesel fuel.
- Pavillion, WY – “methane, arsenic, and metals including copper and vanadium – as well as other compounds –in shallow water wells…2-butoxyethanol phosphate (2-BEp), benzene at 50 times the level that is considered safe for people, aphenols — another dangerous human carcinogen — acetone, toluene, naphthalene and traces of diesel fuel… Agency officials insist their data was correct…”
The public has a right to know! Back off the EPA and let them do their job!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Pavilion Wy – another pov
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-20/wyoming-replaces-u-s-to-study-water-woes-tied-to-fracking-1-.html
“Critics of the report, including Wyoming officials, raised concerns about whether EPA properly constructed the wells it used to draw its conclusions.
After numerous delays, the EPA said Thursday it would not finalize the report or seek a peer review of its findings, instead saying it would allow Wyoming to take over the investigation.”
must be bad if they won’t even submit it for peer review
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/20/us-usa-epa-fracking-idUSBRE95J1AN20130620
“In 2011, the EPA released a non-peer reviewed report on Pavillion in which the agency publicly linked fracking and groundwater contamination for the first time. However, then EPA administrator Lisa Jackson stated at the time that there is “no proven case where the fracking process itself has affected water.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/21/epa-fails-to-link-fracking-to-water-contamination-for-the-third-time/#ixzz2Y30gqtao
Are you kidding me? Do you really think that Bloomberg article help to make your case that fracking is okay and that the EPA backed down because of science and not political pressure.
This might be helpful to you: http://learningdisabilities.about.com/od/instructionalmaterials/tp/rdgcompretensn.htm