LA Times: EPA Censored Key Pennsylvania Fracking Water Contamination Study

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A must-readย Los Angeles Timesย story by Neela Banerjee demonstrates that – once again – the Obama administrationย put the kibosh on a key Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study on hydraulic fracturing (โ€œfrackingโ€) groundwater contamination, this time in Dimock,ย Pennsylvania.

Though EPA said Dimock’s water wasn’t contaminated by fracking in a 2012 election year desk statement, internal documents obtained by LA Timesย reporter Neela Banerjee show regional EPA staff members saying the exact opposite amongย friends.ย 

โ€œIn an internal EPA PowerPoint presentationโ€ฆstaff members warned their superiors that several wells had been contaminated with methane and substances such as manganese and arsenic, most likely because of local natural gas production,โ€ writesย Banerjee.

โ€œThe presentation, based on data collected over 4 1/2 years at 11 wells around Dimock, concluded that ‘methane and other gases released during drilling (including air from the drilling) apparently cause significant damage to the water quality.’ The presentation also concluded that ‘methane is at significantly higher concentrations in the aquifers after gas drilling and perhaps as a result of fracking [hydraulic fracturing] and other gas well work,โ€ Banerjee furtherย explained.

It’s essentially a repeat of Steve Lipsky’s water contamination by Range Resources in late-2010 in Weatherford, Texas.ย In that case, EPA conducted a taxpayer funded study, determined Range had contaminated his water, sued Range – and then proceeded to drop the suit and censor the study in March 2012.ย 

EPA also recently kicked the can down the road on a high-profile fracking groundwater contamination study in Pavillion, Wyoming, originally set to come out in 2014. That release is now expected in 2016, another election year. Just days after EPA‘s decision, a Duke University study again linked fracking to groundwater contamination in the Marcellus Shale.

โ€œWe don’t know what’s going on, but certainly the fact that there’s been such a distinct withdrawal from three high-profile cases raises questions about whether the EPA is caving to pressure from industry or antagonistic members of Congress,โ€ Kate Sinding of the Natural Resources Defense Councilย (NRDC) told the LAย Times.ย 

Ed Rendell and Friends At Workย Again?

Located in the heart of the Marcellus Shale basin, Dimock was featured prominently in both โ€œGaslandโ€ documentaries, as well as in โ€œFrackNation,โ€ the industry-funded film created to counter Josh Fox’s films, produced and directed by climate change deniers Phelim McAleer and Annย McElhinney.ย 

In the case of โ€œFrackNation,โ€ McAleer used EPA‘s desk statement for propaganda purposes. He portrayed Craig and Julie Sautner – whose water was contamined by Cabot Oil and Gas – as โ€œcrying wolfโ€ for expressing anger that EPA privately told them their water was contamined, then publicly stated that itย wasn’t.ย 

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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