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EPA Requests $14 Million to Continue Fracking Study

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EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson testifies at a Congressional hearing in May, 2011.


EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson speaks to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works today about her agency’s budget request for $8.344 billion dollars. In Jackson’s prepared remarks, she touches upon fracking.

“As I’ve mentioned before, natural gas is an important resource which is abundant in the United States, but we must make sure that the ways we extract it do not risk the safety of public water supplies. This budget continues EPA’s ongoing congressionally directed hydraulic fracturing study, which we have taken great steps to ensure is independent, peer reviewed and based on strong and scientifically defensible data. Building on these ongoing efforts, this budget requests $14 million in total to work collaboratively with the United States Geological Survey, the Department of Energy and other partners to assess questions regarding hydraulic fracturing. Strong science means finding the answers to tough questions, and EPA’s request does that.”

EPA recently released the results of 11 water tests in Dimock, Susquehanna County. Although the EPA found contaminants in the water, the agency says the levels would not create a health threat. But public health professionals and scientists consulted by the residents disagree.

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