The EPA plans to finalize its report on water contamination related to fracking by the end of the year. EPA administrator McCarthy recently stated that its Science Advisory Board was “as fractured as the subject matter”. In truth, four of the 31 members of the SAB dissented. They all have industry ties.<\/p>\n
Berks Gas Truth is helping to circulate a petition to pressure the EPA into listening the conclusion by the majority of the SAB members. The background given on the petition says:<\/p>\n
“Last year the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a draft study of fracking\u2019s impacts to drinking water. The study\u2019s executive summary stated, \u201cWe did not find evidence that these mechanisms [hydraulic fracturing operations] have led to widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
That report has been widely used by the fracking industry and its backers to claim that fracking is ‘safe’.<\/p>\n
But the report\u2019s own data (which was entirely self-reported by the industry), finds several clear incidents of contamination, and certainly no conclusion of safety can be drawn from such a limited, industry-approved study. Furthermore, numerous independent studies have found that fracking poses a high risk for contaminating drinking water supplies. One found that, even with safety measures, fracking still poses a serious threat to human health.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why advocacy groups and environmentalists have cried foul. Even the EPA\u2019s own independent Science Advisory Board (SAB), after a year of peer-reviewed analysis of the agency\u2019s draft report, challenged the EPA to either provide hard evidence to support its conclusion or to retract the conclusion.”<\/p>\n