Water Contamination Synthesis

The Link between Natural Gas Fracking and Water Contamination Levels

            The article “EPA: Natural Gas Fracking Linked to Water Contamination” discusses the recent studies performed by the Environmental Protection Agency to determine if fracking – a drilling process that acquires natural gases from underground – can have a negative effect on well water. The initial complaints of tainted water began in the mid-1990s in Pavillion, Wyoming. The EPA did not conduct studies until 2004, when residents complained of brown water after a gas began to be fracked nearby.

            The results of the studies have not been completely conclusive, allowing the drilling company, EnCana, to claim that other sources of pollution from agriculture and abandoned oil and gas waste pits could have caused the pollution. The EPA’s studies do show that a chemical commonly used in gas fracking was found in the water, and other evidence is continually being discovered to prove that the fracking is causing water contamination. The EPA also argues that the surface pollution EnCana insists is the cause of the contamination would not reach down one thousand feet underground, which is where the wells they collected their data from were located. EPA studies also confirmed that the geologic layers underground do not keep chemicals from surfacing when pushed upwards by hydrologic pressure; something that most gas fracking companies claim.

            A draft of the EPA’s report is currently undergoing the review process. Politicians must decide what their stance is on this issue, as new laws and policies will likely be proposed to Congress. These policies would limit the gas fracking industry and impose strict regulations to prevent further pollution. The EPA studies will also affect the way that fracking will develop across the Eastern Appalachian states.

The response of EnCana was unsatisfactory. Although there is no concrete evidence, there is a lot of data to suggest that gas fracking has a large role in water contamination. The company should be more precautious and develop new ways to improve their current methods of fracking or design new ones that would lower the environmental impact. After learning of the data that has already been presented, any effort to try and convince the public that fracking played no role in the pollution in Wyoming would be futile.