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Executive Summary
Humans need very
few things to survive: air, shelter, food, and water. Fossil fuels (oil, coal
and natural gas) pollute the air with smog, soot and global warming pollution,
but their effect on water is often overlooked. Natural gas, which the industry
touts as the “cleanest of all fossil fuels,” threatens to dirty drinking water
with toxic chemicals used in drilling. Rivers,
lakes and groundwater already face threats from industrial pollution, agricultural
runoff, and overdevelopment. Adding an unnecessary threat to one of the most
valuable resources is dangerous. The government must act to safeguard drinking
water.
In light of the
increased pressure to drill for more natural gas in states across the country,
this report focuses on the dangers to drinking water from gas drilling. In
particular, we examined hydraulic fracturing (often called “fracking”), a
commonly used process gas companies employ to extract natural gas or oil reserves.
Natural gas exists in bubbles underground, much like bubbles in carbonated
soda. Getting to these pockets of gas requires injecting millions of gallons of
water, sand and chemicals into the ground in order to crack open these bubbles
in the rock to allow natural gas to flow to the surface.
Because
manufacturers are often not required to disclose the make-up of fluids used in
fracturing, we cannot present a truly comprehensive portrait of the toxic
chemicals used in drilling. However, the available information from
state-required or voluntary disclosures paints a very troubling picture of the
toxicity of these chemicals. We find that many of the chemicals used in
fracking pose serious health threats. They harm the nervous system, cause
respiratory problems and create reproductive issues.
While the
chemicals used in drilling near water certainly require monitoring and
regulation, drilling also threatens water in other ways. The huge amounts of
water required for drilling each site may drain local watersheds. Drilling
sites can use up to 7.5 million gallons of water per well.2
Other problems with the process include inadequate standards for waste
disposal, the ability of drilling to force naturally occurring toxics
substances as well as the natural gas itself into the groundwater, and a lack of
appropriate monitoring of drilling sites.
While natural
gas may be better in some aspects than its fossil fuel brethren, drilling for
natural gas must not put drinking water at risk. In order to assure water safety,
we should:
Avoid Toxic Contamination
• Replace
dangerous chemicals in fracturing fluids with safer alternatives; and
• Send
wastewater to facilities capable of dealing with the issues presented by
fracturing fluids.
Plan for Safety
• Prevent gas
drillers from using water for fracturing where it depletes local watersheds;
• Drill only in
areas safely distant from drinking water;
• Require a fee
for drilling sufficient to pay for cleanup of abandoned sites and to pay for
monitoring, permitting, and enforcement of active sites; and
• Create a
bonding requirement to make sure that companies have the ability to cover the
above costs before drilling begins.
Hold Drillers Accountable
• Make the
composition of fracturing fluids public;
• Make sure
citizens know the quantity and location of fluids injected nearby;
• Make polluters
pay for any contamination they cause; and
• Clean up sites
when done and replace lost water supplies.
Employ Best Practices
• Construct
drilling sites in a way that prevents the spread of contaminants, such as using
steel tanks rather than open pits for wastewater; and
• Be prepared
for problems by using rubber pools to catch spills and frequently monitoring
for the possibility of escaped fluids or gases.
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