EWG News release
EPA: Water Wells Contaminated Near Fracking Blowout Site
Agency Won’t Reveal What Contaminants Were Found
Washington, D.C. – Underscoring the risks to drinking water supplies of hydraulic fracturing, three water samples collected from private wells following a blowout at a Chesapeake Energy Corp. natural gas drilling site in northeast Pennsylvania have been found to be contaminated, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said today.
Officials with EPA informed residents in the area of the blowout about the test results but declined to provide any details as to what contaminants were detected.
“It's nice to see EPA actually on the ground, testing for contamination near the Chesapeake blowout,” said Dusty Horwitt, senior counsel at Environmental Working Group. “Now the agency must immediately reveal to the affected community what contaminants it found and compare them to the chemicals Chesapeake was using in its drilling operations. The people have a right to know."
For more on Environmental Working Group’s research and advocacy on the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, click here: http://www.ewg.org/gas-drilling-and-fracking
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EWG is a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, DC that uses the power of information to protect human health and the environment. http://www.ewg.org