EPA: Natural
Gas Fracking Article Response
The EPA released a report on
December 9, 2011, about the effects of natural gas fracking in the town of
Pavillion, Wyoming. Hydraulic fracturing, of fracking for short, is the process
in which people drill for natural gas. It has been thought in the past that
fracking was safe for many reasons. Fluids should have been forced down, not
up, the layers of rock should’ve formed a watertight seal preventing chemicals
to move up, and that the pollution of wells wasn’t related to fracking.
However, it is now being said that those statements are not true, and the
chemicals used in the fracking process are finding their way into drinking
water.
There are some opponents to this
theory that fracking is dangerous though. Not surprisingly, the company who
owns the wells in Pavillion is speaking out against the EPA investigation.
EnCana spokesperson Doug Hock says that the company is not to blame, and says
that “Nothing EPA presented suggests anything has changed since August of last
year--the science remains inconclusive in terms of data, impact, and source."
Of course, it is expected that the company would try to defend themselves,
seeing how these accusations from the EPA will be pretty bad for business. Hock
isn’t the only opponent though. Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma
said that the agencies report was offensive. Inhofe’s office also accused the
EPA of being biased last year when looking into Wyoming.
Regardless of who’s to blame, water
is still being polluted. The EPA has been monitoring the water for a while now,
and has found a few pollutants in drinking water. Some of these chemicals can
cause cancer such as benzene, and others are known to be used in fracking such
as Butoxyethanol. These chemicals need to be removed from people’s drinking
water before something happens to them. Rather or not fracking is the reason
for this is irrelevant for now, people need some safe water to drink and then
we can worry about pointing fingers.
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