Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process used to crack open rock and shale deep underground to stimulate the flow of hydrocarbons. While the process is credited for vastly increasing America’s natural gas reserve — by as much as 35 percent in recent years, it has also come under increasing scrutiny for fear that the process is causing contaminated drinking water supplies.

Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warned residents near the town of Pavillion, Wyoming to discontinue drinking water from at least 20 private groundwater wells after finding petroleum compounds in the water tested that the agency believes should not be present.

The Casper Star-Tribune reports that “several Pavillion-area residents convinced the EPA to conduct its own investigation of possible drinking water contamination beginning in 2009. ”  According to Abrahm Lustgarten writing in ProPublica:  “The study, which is being conducted under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program, is the first time the EPA has undertaken its own water analysis in response to complaints of contamination in drilling areas, and it could be pivotal in the national debate over the role of natural gas in America’s energy policy.”

Scientists in Wyoming will continue the testing this fall to determine the level of chemicals in the water and exactly where they came from.  Many different chemicals may be used in fracking, and the industry has consistently insisted it doesn’t have to disclose these recipes because they are considered proprietary. Read More