Hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as fracking, has the potential to affect drinking water sources in the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency announced in December.
EPA released its final assessment on the effects of fracking on drinking water — an inquiry that began at the request of Congress. Fracking is the process of injecting liquids at high pressures into the Earth to extract oil or gas. EPA’s report covers potential effects of the many stages of fracking, including acquiring the water used in fracking, mixing the water with chemical additives, injecting fracking fluids into oil or gas wells, and collecting and managing the wastewater that comes back to the surface after injection.
“EPA’s assessment provides the scientific foundation for local decisionmakers, industry and communities that are looking to protect public health,” said Thomas Burke, PhD, EPA science advisor and deputy assistant administrator of the agency’s Office of Research and Development, in a news release. “This assessment is the most complete compilation to date of national scientific data on the relationship of drinking water resources and hydraulic fracturing.”
The EPA report concluded that fracking can affect drinking water under some circumstances. Among the many factors and events that can harm drinking water are spills of fracking fluids and chemicals, the injection of fracking fluids into defective wells, the discharge of inadequately treated fracking wastewater into surface water and the disposal of fracking wastewater into unlined pits that may leak into nearby groundwater.
The water Americans drink can be put at risk by hydraulic fracturing, an EPA assessment concludes.
Photo by Gemenacom, courtesy iStockphoto
The report noted that due to data gaps, EPA was unable to estimate how often fracking activities impact drinking water sources. Lack of data also led EPA to remove language that was in the agency’s 2015 draft statement that stated there was “no evidence of widespread, systemic impacts” related to fracking.
Among the data gaps that researchers faced during the assessment was a lack of toxicity information on the chemicals used during fracking. According to EPA, of the more than 1,600 chemicals considered during the final assessment, only 173 have chronic oral toxicity values that can be referenced during a human health review.
“Overall, hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas is a practice that continues to evolve,” the report concluded. “Evaluating the potential for activities in the hydraulic fracturing water cycle to impact drinking water resources will need to keep pace with emerging technologies and new scientific studies.”
For more information on “Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas: Impacts from the Hydraulic Fracturing Water Cycle on Drinking Water Resources in the United States,” visit www.epa.gov.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association