GAS DRILLING POISONS WATER

Natural Gas Drilling Poses Toxic Threat to Illinois’s Drinking Water
Max Muller, November 4, 2009 (Environment Illinois)

"Toxic chemicals used in natural gas drilling could pose a threat to water quality near Illinois’s 733 gas wells according to [Toxic Chemicals on Tap: How Natural Gas Drilling Threatens Drinking Water]…by Environment Illinois…The report…details the multiple ways chemicals employed in gas drilling could endanger clean water in Illinois…

"To extract natural gas, drillers often inject a toxic mix of fluids into the ground to create fractures which allow natural gas to flow to the surface. This process can force toxic substances already underground into drinking water. Some of the pollutant laden fluids drillers inject remain underground, and can also end up contaminating water supplies."

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"The fluids recovered by drillers can contaminate water as well. The recovered fluids are frequently stored in open-air pits, which have the potential to leak or flood, and can overwhelm local water treatment facilities. Also, the amount of water needed for the process- often millions of gallons- may drain local watersheds. In some cases, it has caused streams to run dry.

"Due in part to a 2005 exemption to the Safe Drinking Water Act, the EPA cannot fully regulate gas drilling. Moreover, the federal government does not require drillers to publicly disclose the fluids they use in some of their processes and only 5 states out of 32 states with gas drilling require public disclosure…Illinois does not require drillers to disclose the fluids they use…"

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"Environment Illinois asks that drillers be required to disclose the chemicals they use, as well as where and how much they use them. The group also calls for gas drillers to replace toxic chemicals with safer alternatives…[and says] a variety of regulations and improvements are necessary: improved monitoring in order to better catch gas or chemical leakage, improved disposal methods for recovered drilling fluids, and assurance that drillers are not operating in locations that may lead to the contamination of drinking water.

"This report comes as pressure to expand natural gas drilling builds. Some are hoping for natural gas to increase its share of our energy mix, but natural gas still emits a significant amount of global warming pollution…"