Put drinking water safeguard back in place

U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, NY, in today's Press & Sun-Bulletin pressconnects.com "In Your Voice", writes:

Every person deserves access to safe, clean drinking water - our most precious natural resource. ...

That's why I'm working so hard in Congress to restore the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate hydraulic-fracturing, or fracking, to protect drinking water supplies in other states across our country. Fracking is used to extract natural gas buried in rock formations by injecting a fluid into the ground composed of sand, water and chemicals, some of which are toxic like benzene and toluene. The EPA had the authority to regulate fracking under the Safe Drinking Water Act until 2005 when a misguided energy bill, which I vehemently opposed, stripped the agency of this authority. As a result, the oil and gas industry is now the only industry in the U.S. that cannot be regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Natural gas drilling, when done properly, has an important place in our national energy policy. ... we cannot afford to get this wrong. While the economic benefits of drilling are potentially great, the potentially disastrous economic and public health consequences of failing to protect our water supplies would be exponentially greater.

That's why I've coauthored the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act of 2009 with Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo. This important legislation would reverse the 2005 exemption and restore the EPA's authority under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Additionally, the bill would require companies to honestly disclose the contents of fracturing fluid in order to increase public awareness and to enable state and local regulators to properly control the chemicals being pumped into the ground. ...
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PLEASE URGE CONGRESS TO VOTE FOR THE FRAC ACT, ELIMINATING THE EXEMPTION FOR HYDRAULIC FRACTURING FROM THE SAFE DRINKING WATER ACT.
JUST CLICK HERE TO HELP PROTECT DRINKABLE WATER, OUR VITAL, LIFELINE RESOURCE . It'll just take a minute... Thank you. Splashdown
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To clarify some misconceptions about the bill:

* It doesn't ban fracturing or natural gas drilling in New York or anywhere else.

* It doesn't prescribe new regulations that would stifle natural gas development.

* It doesn't impose any delays on utilizing natural gas resources.

The bill simply restores commonsense protections that were in place before 2005.

Additionally, I've authored a separate legislative measure that urges the EPA to conduct a study on the impact that fracking poses to drinking water supplies across the country. This measure, which has already passed the House, would help the EPA gain a true understanding of the impact that fracking has on drinking water supplies so that the agency will be ready to take any necessary protective action should we successfully restore its regulatory authority to oversee fracking.

The oil and gas industry maintains that fracking is a practice that's been safely used for decades. If that's the case, then the industry has nothing to worry about because the EPA wouldn't find anything objectionable in the practice. However, while the practice of fracking has been around for some time, energy companies are now using new concoctions of toxic chemicals on a grander scale than ever before. Evidence from drilling sites across the country gives reason for concern. In just the last month, the EPA opened a formal investigation into links between contamination at 11 drinking wells in Wyoming and nearby natural gas development, including hydro-fracturing.

The true environmental impact of fracking is not entirely known, but there are enough red flags that make it absolutely worth restoring the EPA's authority to protect drinking water supplies from any chemicals that are planned to be pumped into the ground. We cannot put ourselves in a position where five, 10 or 50 years from now, people are left wondering how our current generation was so foolish as to not take commonsense precautions to safeguard our most vital resource. We have nothing to lose by restoring the EPA's authority, but we could lose everything if we don't.

• For Rep. Hinchey's complete remarks, CLICK HERE.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!