Diagram of the fracking process Homeowner holding fracked water in Maryland suburb
Especially with Earth Day tomorrow, it is important to know what issues seem to float below the radar. One of these pertains to the dilution of the Safe Drinking Water Act first enacted in 1974. The Act regulates what industrial chemicals can be added to water, as well as any underground injection which can threaten drinking water supplies.
Below the attention radar of most citizens is the presence of fracked water in the water supply which contain fracked fluids. The latter arise from fracking or hydraulic fracturing - which process is depicted in the top graphic. Workers inject fluids underground under high pressure, which then fracture coal beds and shale rock allowing trapped gas and oil to rise to the surface.
The fracking fluids are not innocuous or benign even though they are up to 97% water. They still contain a host of toxic chemicals which perform the functions such as dissolving minerals. The chemicals include:
Benzene: a powerful bone-marrow poison (aplastic anemia)
associated with leukemia, breast and uterine cancer
- Styrene, which may
cause eye and mucous membrane irritation, neurotoxic effects in the central and
peripheral nervous systems.
- Toluene, which may
cause muscular incoordination, tremors, hearing loss, dizziness, vertigo,
emotional instability and delusions, liver and kidney damage, and anemia.
- Xylene, with
cancer-causing (mainly in the kidneys, liver) and neurotoxic effects, as
well as reproductive abnormalities.
- Methylene chloride, which
may cause cancer, liver and kidney damage, central nervous system disorders and
COPD.
As well as another class known as PFAS Chemicals or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, widely used for decades for such things as fire fighting foam, waterproofing and carpets. They are also known as "forever chemicals" because they can survive hundreds of years in the environment. Thus, the relevance of all these to Earth Day concerns.
In 1997 the 11th Circuit Court Of Appeals ruled that fracking and its fluids should be regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. This would have required oil and gas producers to develop and use underground injection control plans as well as monitor water sources for contamination. It was a solid idea but never materialized.
In the wake of the Appeals court ruling and under the Gee Dumbya Bush regime - with a friendly GOP congress at the time - the oil and gas industry mounted a ferocious lobbying campaign to exempt fracking and fracked fluids from the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act. Congress obeyed and implemented the exemption as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The provision has since been known as "the Halliburton loophole" because it was championed by Bush VP sidekick Dick Cheney - CEO of Halliburton. (The same company patented fracking technologies in the 1940s.)
Despite researchers documenting numerous studies on the adverse health effects of these fracking chemicals in water, the exemptions under the 2005 act make it almost impossible to monitor the impacts of their use. The worst part? Many states allow oil and gas producers to withhold information about the chemicals they use in fracking and which reach the water supply. (The companies uniformly declare that information is "proprietary".)
Under one study - using the FracFocus registry- it was found that companies reported using about 7.2 billion pounds of proprietary chemicals or more than 25 times the total mass of chemicals listed under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The registry further found that after one review companies were using 28 chemicals that otherwise would be regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Ethylene glycol - also used in antifreeze- was used in the largest quantities. (See lower graphic for some of this stuff in the MD water supply)
Given each of the fracking chemicals has major health effects and that hundreds of spills occur annually in the area of fracking wells, it is clear action is needed to protect environmental health and enable rigorous scientific monitoring. This ought to assume priority on this Earth Day - along with the impacts of CO2 on the atmosphere, and its absorption in the oceans.
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by Rick Steiner | April 21, 2023 - 5:14am | permalink
A great way to honor Earth Day 2023 (April 22) would be to accelerate our efforts to end our destructive addiction to oil.
The first step toward recovery from any addiction is to tell the truth—admit the addiction, acknowledge its consequences. Yet this is something we still seem unwilling to do with our addiction to oil. It is always easier for addicts to just stay high instead of confronting their addiction and committing to recovery.
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