The reality is that thousands of wells are getting fracked, with the injection of water, sand, and chemicals very deep underground to extract the shale gas. And intricate system then brings the gas to the surface. EPA’s research looked at 38,000 oil and gas wells where the technology has been employed, all between 2000 and 2013. The vast majority of them got a good bill of health.
Still, the White House has pushed for more federal oversight and especially for regulations that would force drillers to disclose the fracking chemicals they use. The administration also wants stronger standards for well construction to limit fugitive releases and safer dispensing of dirty water flowing to the surface.
Last summer, the Harvard Business School and the Boston Consulting Group said that the abundance and the cheap price of natural gas are both attracting other industrials to our shores, creating new jobs and more wealth. That analysis is generally supported by an earlier one produced by Yale University.
“The U.S. needs to achieve a ‘rational middle’ ground to capitalize on this historic opportunity,” says the Harvard/Boston study, issued last summer.
Already, shale oil and gas added $430 billion to the 2014 annual gross domestic product here while supporting more than 2.7 million American jobs – at pay that is twice the median salaries, the study says. More remains to be done, it adds, noting that the natural gas pipeline infrastructure must be expanded to accommodate even more growth. Meantime, workers need to be retrained.
Okay, but what about concerns over fouling water supplies? Opponents say that fracking is allowing dirty water to escape into watersheds, citing a study from the Colorado School of Public Health that says those living near drilling sites are getting exposed to unhealthy conditions.
Consider New York State: It studied the health and safety affects of fracking and it has concluded that there are “significant public health risks.” Its own study concludes that the environmental costs outweigh the economic benefits. In December 2014, it officially banned the use of fracking within its borders.
Skeptics of fracking are pointing to Pavillion, Wyoming, where the Environmental Protection Agency had examined whether the fracking process polluted drinking water there: Regulators had discovered “synethetic chemicals” associated with drilling, which had contaminated the ground water. The samples, furthermore, didn’t meet the Safe Drinking Water Act standard.
The cause: EPA said that the Pavillion wells were too shallow, or about a quarter of the distance of most such development. If drilling is closer to the surface, then it increases the chance that chemicals would escape and that water supplies would be dirtied. Since that finding, however, EPA has turned over the investigation to Wyoming regulators.
