Those alarmed by the widespread adoption of fracking in recent years have tried desperately to expose the water-chemical cocktail that gas companies inject into the ground to access gas deposits. Unfortunately, the industry does not require disclosure of this fluid’s ingredients, even though it’s very likely to end up in the public water supply.
Up until now it’s been deny, deny, deny, but a recent industry report has exposed fracking for the deadly practice that it is.
It is not easy to pry information from the close-mouthed fracking industry, but sometimes they put their own feet in their mouths and disclose things to fracking-friendly websites. At one such site, "FracFocus.org", the industry self-reported the liberal use of the carcinogens naphthalene, benzyl chloride, and formaldehyde in wells that connect to the drinking water supply.
Did you catch that? The use of carcinocens was voluntarily reported, by gas companies themselves, to a fracking-friendly website. That means no twisting of facts or empty accusations by environmentalists (not that that happens anyway). This is straight from the horse’s mouth, if you will, and it’s BAD NEWS for communities across the country.
A group calling itself "SkyTruth" has painstakingly compiled a database of the chemicals being used and dumped into the environment by the fracking industry. It is available here: http://frack.skytruth.org/fracking-chemical-database.
Big Gas is allowed to pump these chemicals into the Earth with impunity. Sure, everyone from the EPA down claims to be “looking into” the potential hazards of fracking, meanwhile the gas companies are charging full steam ahead, using their financial and political clout to bully communities into submission.
It’s wrong, it’s dangerous and it’s time we did something about it.
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