Chicago, Ill. - Toxic chemicals used in natural
gas drilling could pose a threat to water quality near Illinois’s 733 gas wells
according to a report released today by Environment
Illinois.
The report, Toxic Chemicals on Tap: How Gas Drilling Threatens Drinking
Water, details the multiple ways chemicals employed in gas drilling could endanger
clean water in Illinois.
“Illinoisans
need to be positive that there are no toxic chemicals in their tap water. Drilling
for natural gas should not come at the expense of our drinking water,” said
Brian Spranger of Environment Illinois.
To
extract natural gas, drillers often inject a toxic mix of fluids into the
ground to create fractures which allow natural gas to flow to the surface. This
process can force toxic substances already underground into drinking water.
Some of the pollutant laden fluids drillers inject remain underground, and can
also end up contaminating water supplies.
The
fluids recovered by drillers can contaminate water as well. The recovered
fluids are frequently stored in open-air pits, which have the potential to leak
or flood, and can overwhelm local water treatment facilities. Also, the amount
of water needed for the process- often millions of gallons- may drain local
watersheds. In some cases, it has caused streams to run dry.
Due
in part to a 2005 exemption to the Safe Drinking Water Act, the EPA cannot
fully regulate gas drilling. Moreover, the federal government does not require
drillers to publicly disclose the fluids they use in some of their processes
and only 5 states out of 32 states with gas drilling require public disclosure.
The report includes data collected from states that require drillers to
disclose the chemicals used in drilling.
Illinois
does not require drillers to disclose the fluids they use, so Illinoisans do
not know what toxic chemicals might be threatening our drinking water, said
Spranger.
“While
we don’t know all of the chemicals used in gas drilling, we know that the list
can include carcinogens, chemicals affecting organ function, and endocrine
disruptors,” said Spranger
Environment
Illinois asks that drillers be required to disclose the chemicals they use, as
well as where and how much they use them. The group also calls for gas drillers
to replace toxic chemicals with safer alternatives.
The
report says that a variety of regulations and improvements are necessary:
improved monitoring in order to better catch gas or chemical leakage, improved
disposal methods for recovered drilling fluids, and assurance that drillers are
not operating in locations that may lead to the contamination of drinking
water.
This
report comes as pressure to expand natural gas drilling builds. Some are hoping
for natural gas to increase its share of our energy mix, but natural gas still
emits a significant amount of global warming pollution.
“Switching
from one dirty fossil fuel to another must not come at the
cost of clean water. Illinoisans have a right to know what chemicals nearby
drillers inject,” said Spranger.
“We
need to protect our taps from this threat. That means we need to make sure
drillers employ the best practices available, and that we hold them accountable
for their mistakes. We should do everything we can to protect our drinking
water,” Spranger said.
###
