Mike Soraghan
When U.S. EPA issued a report last month on groundwater contamination in Pavillion, Wyo., many saw it as proof that hydraulic fracturing had contaminated drinking water.
It wasn't.
Fracturing contaminated groundwater, EPA said. Not drinking water.
The distinction is important. People in the small central Wyoming town don't drink from the aquifer, 800 feet down. They drink from water wells, which are generally much shallower.
Finding fracturing chemicals in any groundwater does puncture a big industry talking point -- that fracturing has been used safely for 60 years and has never, ever contaminated groundwater. But fracturing done in Pavillion was much closer to the surface -- and groundwater -- than the mile-deep "fracking" in shale formations like Pennsylvania's Marcellus.
The groundwater versus drinking water distinction has been lost in the finger-pointing between environmentalists and industry. So have some other key facts. Among them:
Read more: http://www.eenews.net/public/Greenwire/2012/01/23/1
When U.S. EPA issued a report last month on groundwater contamination in Pavillion, Wyo., many saw it as proof that hydraulic fracturing had contaminated drinking water.
It wasn't.
Fracturing contaminated groundwater, EPA said. Not drinking water.
The distinction is important. People in the small central Wyoming town don't drink from the aquifer, 800 feet down. They drink from water wells, which are generally much shallower.
Finding fracturing chemicals in any groundwater does puncture a big industry talking point -- that fracturing has been used safely for 60 years and has never, ever contaminated groundwater. But fracturing done in Pavillion was much closer to the surface -- and groundwater -- than the mile-deep "fracking" in shale formations like Pennsylvania's Marcellus.
The groundwater versus drinking water distinction has been lost in the finger-pointing between environmentalists and industry. So have some other key facts. Among them:
Read more: http://www.eenews.net/public/Greenwire/2012/01/23/1
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