'87 EPA Report Shows Fracking Problems
August 4, 2011 by UPI - United Press International, Inc.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (UPI) — A 1987 report by U.S. regulators on groundwater contamination in West Virginia shows hydraulic fracturing for gas is not safe, an environmental group says.
The Environmental Working Group, based in Washington, released a report Wednesday on the process, known generally as fracking, titled “Cracks in the Facade,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The Environmental Protection Agency reported to Congress in 1987 that a 4,000-foot well drilled in 1982 by Kaiser Natural Gas had contaminated neighboring wells.
Drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, which underlies parts of West Virginia and western Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland, has recently expanded greatly.
Dusty Horwitt, who wrote the report, said there was similar contamination to that found by the EPA in 1987after a gas well was drilled in Jackson County in West Virginia.
“Now it’s up to the EPA to pick up where it left off 25 years ago and determine the true risks of fracking so that our drinking water can be protected,” he said.
Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said problems with the 1982 well were isolated. She called the report part of a “campaign to malign the modern-day shale gas revolution under way in America.”
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