New Report Provides EPA with More Than 100 Cases of Environmental Contamination Resulting from Gas Drilling Operations Nationwide
September 16, 2010
Riverkeeper Team
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tina Posterli, tposterli@riverkeeper.org, 914-478-4501 x 239
White Plains, NY -- September 15, 2010 -- As nationwide EPA public hearings on gas drilling wrap up today in Binghamton, New York, Riverkeeper released a report that documents well over 100 cases of environmental contamination that it says EPA needs to examine as part of its current study on hydraulic fracturing, a type of gas drilling currently proposed for upstate New York.
The report, Fractured Communities, highlights case studies where federal and state regulators identified gas drilling operations, including those that utilize hydraulic fracturing, as the known or suspected cause of groundwater, drinking water, and surface water contamination.
Specifically, the report documents:
- More than 20 cases of drinking water contamination in Pennsylvania;
- More than 30 cases of groundwater and drinking water contamination in Colorado and Wyoming;
- More than 10 cases of surface water spills of drilling fluid in the Marcellus Shale region;
- More than 30 investigations of stray gas migration from new and abandoned wells in Pennsylvania;
- Dozens of illegal operations and permit violations by gas drilling companies;
- Five (5) explosions that occurred between 2006 and 2010 that contaminated groundwater and/or surface water.
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