Fracking report offffffffffffers few answers on drinking water

EPA says it poses some risk, but how much is unknown.

WASHINGTON — Is hydraulic fracturing — better known as fracking — safe, as the oil and gas industry claims? Or does the controversial drilling technique that has spurred a domestic energy boom contaminate drinking water, as environmental groups and other critics charge?

After six years and more than the $29 million, the Environmental Protection Agency says it doesn’t know.

A new report issued Tuesday said fracking poses a risk to drinking water in some circumstances, but a lack of information precludes a defifinitive statement on how severe the risk is.

“Because of the significant data gaps and uncertainties in the available data, it was not possible to fully characterize the severity of impacts, nor was it possible to calculate or estimate the national frequency of impacts on drinking water resources” from fracking activities, the EPA said in a report that raises more questions than answers.

The report removes a fifinding from a draft issued last year indicating that fracking has not caused “widespread, systemic” harm to drinking water in the United States. Industry groups had hailed the draft EPA study as proof that fracking is safe, while environmentalists seized on the report’s identification of cases where fracking-related activities polluted drinking water.

Fracking involves pump- ing huge volumes of water, sand and chemicals underground to split open rock formations so oil and gas will flflow. The practice has spurred an ongoing energy boom but has raised widespread concerns that it might lead to groundwater contamination, increased air pollution and even earthquakes.

T h e r e a c t i o n s w e r e reversed on Tuesday. Environmentalists cheered the new report as proof that fracking threatens drinking water, while industry g r o u p s c o mpl a i n e d t h e Obama administration had yielded to political pressure on its way out the door.

“We are glad EPA resisted oil and gas industry spin, followed the science and delivered the facts,” said John Noel, oil and gas campaigns coordinator for Clean Water Action, an advocacy group.

An oil industry spokesman called the report an “absurd” reversal.

“The agency has walked away from nearly a thousand sources of information from ... technical reports and peer-reviewed scientifific reports demonstrating that ... hydraulic fracturing does not lead to widespread, systemic impacts to drinking water resources,” said Erik Milito of the American Petroleum Institute, an industry lobbying group.

The fracking study makes a mockery of frequent pledges by President Barack Obama and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to follow science as they make decisions, Milito said.

“We look forward to working with the new administration of President- elect Donald Trump) to instill fac tbased science back into the public policy process,” he said.