Newly Discovered EPA Report Links Fracking with Contaminated Well Water

Susan Phillips / StateImpactPA

A nat­ural gas drill rig in Susque­hanna County, PA

The nat­ural gas indus­try says time and again, that hydraulic frac­tur­ing, or frack­ing, has never caused drink­ing water con­t­a­m­i­na­tion. But a long lost report con­ducted 25 years ago by the Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency traced frack­ing to pol­lu­tion found in a Jack­son County, West Vir­ginia water well. The Envi­ron­men­tal Work­ing Group unearthed the report as part of their own inves­ti­ga­tion.

“Dur­ing the frac­tur­ing process,” EPA inves­ti­ga­tors wrote in the 1987 report, which focused on the han­dling of nat­ural gas, oil and geot­her­mal wastes gen­er­ally, “frac­tures can be pro­duced, allow­ing migra­tion of native brine, frac­tur­ing fluid and hydro­car­bons from the oil or gas well to a nearby water well. When this hap­pens, the water well can be per­ma­nently dam­aged and a new well must be drilled or an alter­na­tive source of drink­ing water found.”

Accord­ing to The Envi­ron­men­tal Work­ing Group’s release, EPA inves­ti­ga­tors con­cluded that frack­ing fluid leaked into nearby unused wells built in the 1940’s. Those wells had dete­ri­o­rated enough to allow the frack fluid to migrate into the aquifer. The inves­ti­ga­tors also cited reg­u­la­tions that restricted their inves­ti­ga­tion, includ­ing the so-called “Hal­libur­ton loop­hole” in the fed­eral Safe Drink­ing Water Act, which exempts the gas indus­try from releas­ing the chem­i­cals used to frack a well.