Environment Texas: How Natural Gas Drilling Threatens Drinking Water

Environment Texas released a new study today that details how natural gas development can endanger our water. Steps we should take to protect our water from the executive summary:

Avoid Toxic Contamination

• Replace dangerous chemicals in fracturing fluids with safer alternatives; and
• Send wastewater to facilities capable of dealing with the issues presented by fracturing fluids.

Plan for Safety
Prevent gas drillers from using water for fracturing where it depletes local watersheds;

• Drill only in areas safely distant from drinking water;
• Require a fee for drilling sufficient to pay for cleanup of abandoned sites and to pay for monitoring, permitting, and enforcement of active sites; and
• Create a bonding requirement to make sure that companies have the ability to cover the above costs before drilling begins.

Hold Drillers Accountable

• Make the composition of fracturing fluids public;
• Make sure citizens know the quantity and location of fluids injected nearby;
• Make polluters pay for any contamination they cause; and
• Clean up sites when done and replace lost water supplies.

Employ Best Practices

• Construct drilling sites in a way that prevents the spread of contaminants, such as using steel tanks rather than open pits for wastewater; and
• Be prepared for problems by using rubber pools to catch spills and frequently monitoring for the possibility of escaped fluids or gases.

LINK to the report and the press release.