Yummy!
Mmmm, mmmm! Nothing like a nice, cold glass of
chemicals to wet your whistle:
An analysis of drinking water sampled from three homes in Bradford County, Pa., revealed traces of a compound commonly found in Marcellus Shale drilling fluids, according to a study published on Monday.
The paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, addresses a longstanding question about potential risks to underground drinking water from the drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The authors suggested a chain of events by which the drilling chemical ended up in a homeowner’s water supply.
How did it get there?
Toxic fluids used in drilling and hydraulic fracturing likely escaped an unlined borehole and migrated thousands of feet into a residential drinking-water supply in Pennsylvania, according to a study published Monday.
Why this study is a big deal:
"This is the first documented and published demonstration of toxic compounds escaping from uncased boreholes in shale gas wells and moving long distances" into drinking water, said Susan Brantley, one of the study's authors.
I mean, who could've ever guessed that injecting
280 billion barrels of toxic fracking wastewater into the U.S. each year might eventually threaten our water supply?
As you might expect, those in the business of fracking wastewater disposal say it is no biggie:
The industry has long maintained that because fracking occurs thousands of feet below drinking-water aquifers, the drilling chemicals that are injected to break up rocks and release the gas trapped there pose no risk. In this study, the researchers note that the contamination may have stemmed from a lack of integrity in the drill wells and not from the actual fracking process far below. The industry criticized the new study, saying that it provided no proof that the chemical came from a nearby well.
"No proof" sounds a lot like the defense deployed by cigarette companies for decades.
What how fracking and fracking wastewater disposal has changed one Pennsylvania community just 250 miles east of Bradford County (warning, disturbing images):