NORWICH – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has decided to take another look at hydraulic fracturing, the technology used to withdraw natural gas and oil from coalbeds, shale and other geological formations.
In an announcement released last week, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and Development Dr. Paul T. Anastas said the study, which would be over a two-year period, would be designed “to answer questions about the potential impact of hydraulic fracturing on human health and the environment.” The EPA is seeking to spend $4 million for the process.
While the technique has been utilized to drill wells throughout the country for more than 60 years, and was found safe after a 2005 EPA study, agency officials hope a new look will answer recent questions about its potential impact.
Environmentalists and some lawmakers are pressing for federal oversight of the process, concerned that the drilling technique is contaminating water suppliers. The process, inject highly pressurized water, sand and chemicals designed to break into fissures of natural gas, has opened new deposits to development, dramatically expanding estimates for domestic production.
State regulators are currently charged with overseeing fracturing. Federal regulation could delay development of trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, including that which lies underneath Chenango County. Property owners and economic developers here are already growing weary from waiting for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to finish its own review of the process.
DEC spokesman Yancey Roy said yesterday that the agency was still reviewing 14,000 comments on its own draft of updated regulations and preparing a response. No timeline for completing the task was given. When asked whether the EPA’s decision to embark on its own study would further delay the DEC’s process, Roy did not comment.
“We are not commenting on the EPA’s study,” he said.
Already, hydraulic fracturing of natural gas has been permitted and is actively ongoing in Pennsylvania - some say lifting the neighboring state’s economy out of the current economic crisis.
Despite claims by environmental organizations, the EPA’s Drinking Water Protection Division has found no documented cases that the process was contaminating water supplies.
"I have no information that states aren't doing a good job already," Steve Heare, a division director, was quoted recently.
The EPA is in the very early stages of designing the research program. To support this initial planning phase and guide the development of the study plan, the agency is seeking suggestions and comments from the EPA Science Advisory Board - an independent, external federal advisory committee.
Following the EPA’s announcement last week, Lee Fuller, executive director of Energy In Depth, an industry newsletter, released this statement:
“We are hopeful and it is our expectation that this study – if based on objective, scientific analysis – will serve as an opportunity to highlight the host of steps taken at every wellsite that make certain groundwater is properly protected. The energy industry, as well as state regulatory agencies, are eager to work with EPA throughout this fact-based examination.
“Adding another study to the impressive list of those that have already been conducted and completed is a welcome exercise. Hydraulic fracturing is one of the U.S. oil and gas industry’s crowning achievements, enabling us to produce energy supplies at enormous depths with surgical precision and unrivaled environmental safety records. And, simply put, new innovations are making these technologies better and better by the day – a fact widely recognized by the agencies that regulate hydraulic fracturing in energy-producing states.