23 Jul 2013
Not for the first time, a major study in the US has found no evidence that chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing have migrated to contaminate drinking water aquifers.
After a year of monitoring at a western Pennsylvania shale gas drilling site, researchers for the US Department of Energy, found the chemical-laced fluids used to free gas trapped deep below the surface stayed “thousands of feet” below the shallower areas that supply drinking water.
Hydraulic fracturing has been conducted for more than six decades, yet US federal and state regulators have not identified one confirmed instance in which chemicals from this process have migrated to contaminate groundwater.
For more information, see these articles in The Australian and The Denver Post.
See also, this January blog post on hydraulic fracturing and water and this April post on how hydraulic fracturing can reduce emissions.