Since the beginning of the fracking boom, the potential impact of fracking operations upon groundwater has been a hotly contested area.   The most recent addition to the public debate is a new EPA report, entitled “Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas: Impacts from the Hydraulic Fracturing Water Cycle on Drinking Water Resources in the United States”. The report sets forth the results of EPA’s latest investigation on this subject, which relied on independent research as well as published materials.

The agency concludes that fracking can affect drinking water resources under some circumstances, with impacts ranging in severity from temporary changes in water quality to contamination so severe that it renders water from private wells undrinkable. But the report also concluded that there are too many gaps and uncertainties in the available data to determine the frequency with which Americans’ drinking water is impacted by fracking operations.  Similarly, EPA could not fully characterize the severity of the impacts of fracking on drinking water nationwide.

Unsurprisingly, the report found that among the factors and activities that make impacts likely to be more severe or frequent are (1) withdrawals of water for fracking in areas of declining groundwater resources; (2) spills of hydraulic fracturing fluids; (3) wells with inadequate mechanical integrity; (4) injection of fracking fluids directly into groundwater; (5) discharge of inadequately treated fracking fluid wastewater; and (6) disposal of fracking fluid wastewater in unlined pits.

This relatively inconclusive report is receiving criticism from fracking supporters for failing to more forcefully endorse the safety of the practice.  They are highlighting the statement included in the draft version of the report, but removed from the final one, that EPA “did not find evidence that [fracking related activities] have led to widespread, systematic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States.”

The report puts a spotlight on an interesting choice facing the Trump administration, which has been clear about its desire to promote domestic oil and gas production. At Environmental Law Next, we will be watching to see whether incoming EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt pursues further studies with the aim of providing fracking with the government’s imprimatur of safety, or if he decides to just keep his agency away from the debate.