Waxman, Markey Target Hydraulic Fracturing Despite EPA Assurances

Top Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters to eight oil and gas companies seeking information and records regarding their use of hydraulic fracturing to produce oil and natural gas. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) are considering regulating hydraulic fracturing even though a 2004 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study found no evidence of environmental harm or human health risks.

Oil and natural gas production companies have been utilizing hydraulic fracturing for more than 50 years. The procedure entails shooting a highly pressurized, highly focused stream of sand-water mix underground to create a fissure in rock formations to allow oil and natural gas to rise to the surface.

Although more than 99 percent of the mixture is comprised of sand and water, trace chemicals are also included in the mix. Environmental activists have made opposition to hydraulic fracturing one of their primary focus points in recent years, claiming the process contaminates drinking water.

Industry analysts respond that hydraulic fracturing is typically employed at depths of more than a mile below the earth’s surface, while drinking water is typically retrieved from depths of merely 50 to 300 feet, and the two are separated by thousands of feet of impermeable rock.

Responding to environmental activist concerns, EPA spent four years studying the issue and produced a final report in 2004. While investigating the issue, EPA requested information from 500 local and county agencies, interviewed officials from 50 such agencies, and interviewed and considered data from 40 environmental activist groups which had alleged drinking water contamination. At the conclusion of the four-year investigation, EPA reported hydraulic fracturing “poses little or no threat to underground sources of drinking water and does not justify additional study at this time.”

The results of EPA’s 2004 study did not surprise many objective analysts, as the Clinton administration had concluded the same thing in 1995. Clinton EPA administrator Carol Browner reported “no evidence that hydraulic fracturing resulted in any drinking water contamination.”

In December 2009, EPA and U.S. Geological Survey officials reported the same thing in congressional hearings. During a Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearing on federal drinking water programs, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) asked Peter Silva and Cynthia Giles of EPA and Matthew Larsen of the U.S. Geological Survey, “Do any one of you know of one case of ground water contamination that has resulted from hydraulic fracturing?” Each of them responded in the negative.

“The Obama administration has it right: there are no documented cases of ground water contamination from hydraulic fracturing,” said Inhofe after the hearing. “Hydraulic fracturing is a safe production technique that is thoroughly regulated by the states. We have a 60 year history to prove it.”

“With the unemployment rate at 10 percent, we need to put people back to work,” Inhofe added. “Imposing more bureaucracy and regulation will destroy jobs and stifle opportunities for those looking to find a job. The oil and gas industry employs 6 million people in the U.S., and I want to see that number go up, not down.”