About five years ago, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency was contracted by Congress to manage a study on the effects fracking (hydraulic fracturing) has on drinking water. Fracking is the latest method of gas and oil extraction from the earth’s core that involves the injection of chemicals, sand and highly pressurized water into the roc formations underground.

In the U.S., fracking has contributed to the increase in oil production and steep decline in gasoline prices. However, we are yet to understand the impacts this latest technique has on the environment.

Research findings of EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency released a draft study in June to seek input from advisors and the public in general, which unearthed fracking as a contaminant of consumable water. They discovered certain occurrences one or multiple mechanisms led to effects on consumable water resources including pollution of drinking water wells.

An estimated 6,800 drinking water sources for public water structures were situated within a mile of not less than one hydraulic fractures well. These sources of drinking water catered for over 8.6 million people all-year-round in 2013. Fracking can also impact drinking water resources on the outskirts of the immediate surrounding area of a hydraulically fractured well.

Despite unearthing these findings and the admission from the EPA of uncertainties and data limitations, not to mention the insufficiency of long-term structured studies, the agency reported in its conclusion that no evidence supports fracking to have extensive systematic effects on drinking water reservoirs.

Everyone led on with the agency’s line of conclusion announcing that the science concludes it all and that any other concerns were just deranged activists in pursuit of a hidden agenda. Yet, EPA’s personal science advisors have rejected the main conclusion of the study, saying that it’s not consistent with the data, observations and levels of misgiving.

The scientific review board of 31 members reported on Thursday that the core findings are inconsistent with the data and observations presented on the content of the report.

The draft report’s conclusion already brought up suspicion of tampering from the political aspect. What makes it more suspicious is the fact that EPA chose to ignore the high-profile cases in Texas, Pennsylvania and Wyoming, where fracturing activities are viewed by several members of the public to have prompted major local effects on the drinking water resources.

The draft report also uncovered that aboveground spills and failed wells contributed to the effects it had on drinking water sources, with supportive evidence of over 36,000 spills dating from 2006 to 2012, according to Bloomberg.

Impact of Hydraulic Fracturing

Although gas and oil industries, supported by government agencies tried their best to conceal the identity of hydraulic fracturing from the public, information has been drawn by Yale School of Public Health showing the catastrophic effects these chemicals pose to human health. They include:

1.      Reproductive and development health issues

2.      Earthquake incidents. Oklahoma has experienced 730% increase in earthquake activity since 2013.