Water Pollution from Fracking Confirmed by Study

A groundbreaking new study has been published by Stanford University that for the first time confirms that water pollution from fracking poisons drinking water supplies.

The study examined the impact of fracking on drinking water quality in Pavilion, Wyoming. What researchers found should scare you if you live near a fracking operation, because you have no legal means to stop it. Fracking is exempted from regulations under the Clean Water Act by The Halliburton Loophole, which allows fracking companies to keep the toxic cocktail of chemicals they inject into drinking water aquifers a secret. This loophole enables fracking companies to simply deny their activities are poisoning drinking water. In a court, that enables these companies to have any lawsuits brought against them dismissed, regardless of the harm they caused. But with this new study, that could change with sufficient public pressure.

How Fracking causes Water Pollution

Hydraulic fracking works by forcing large amounts of water, spiked with toxic fracking chemicals, underground under high pressure. The fracking fluid then fractures rock formations underground that contain trapped gasses and or crude oil. The liberated fossil fuels then come up to the surface, along with the fracking fluid used to release it.

Fracking companies have long denied that the toxic fluids and gasses created by fracking causes water pollution. They are able to do this because they can keep secret the toxic mix of chemicals they use to make fracking fluids. Some of the chemicals injected into potentially groundwater-containing rock formations include:

• Benzine – Petroleum byproduct
• Ethylene Glycol – Antifreeze
• Methane – Flammable gas
• Hydrochloric acid – Powerful acid used to dissolve rock

 

The Stanford study blows the veil of secrecy surrounding fracking chemicals wide open. According to the study’s lead author Dominic DiGiulio, a visiting scholar at Stanford School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences: “This is a wake-up call,” “It’s perfectly legal to inject stimulation fluids into underground drinking water resources. This may be causing widespread impacts on drinking water resources.”

The EPA knew and chose to run and hide

Many people assume that the EPA will take action to protect the safety of their drinking water, but they’d be wrong: The EPA did their own study of water pollution from  fracking in Pavilion, found widespread evidence of groundwater pollution, but subsequently abandoned their own study and left the residents of Pavilion to the mercy of the state of Wyoming, which chose to do nothing.

The EPA’s report linked shallow fracking with toxins that were showing up in aquifers, was attacked by the fracking industry. Subsequently, and without explanation, the EPA halted peer review on their study.

You must protect yourself from water pollution from fracking

If you, your family, or your drinking water supply is harmed by fracking, you have to pay 100% of any costs incurred to fix the problem. Legally, frackers are not responsible for the health impacts of their activities, or the environmental impacts of those activities. There are no laws or regulations to protect you. The fracking industry spends millions per year lobbying to keep it this way, and there’s no sign that anything will change soon.

Your best bet is whole home filtration. A whole home filtration system stops toxic fracking chemicals before they can enter your home. Compared to the cost of cancer treatment, a whole home system is an absolute bargain. For a small amount per day, a whole home system protects you, your family, and your investment in your home. The best whole home system for protection from fracking chemicals is Life’s Dolphin Whole Home Filtration system. It uses advanced ion-trapping technology to effectively bind hundreds of toxins within the filter media. Competing systems with conventional filter media can only protect your from a few toxins, and there are literally hundreds of chemicals used in fracking fluid. A Dolphin system is simply your best bet.

 

Is your water supply poisoned by fracking? Find out with a free local water quality report, or call us at 877-959-7977 to speak with a water quality expert today

 

Reference

 

DiGiulio, Dominic C., and Robert B. Jackson. “Impact to Underground Sources of Drinking

Water and Domestic Wells from Production Well Stimulation and Completion Practices in the Pavillion, Wyoming, Field.” – Environmental Science & Technology (ACS Publications). Environmental Science and Technology, 29 Mar. 2016. Web. 30 Mar. 2016. <http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.5b04970>.