Fracking fall-out continues in Texas

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has overstepped Texas regulators by issuing an emergency order against a gas driller. The EPA is accusing the company of contaminating an aquifer and giving it 48 hours to provide clean drinking water to affected residents. "The order is unprecedented in Texas, partly because in issuing it the federal body overstepped the state agency responsible for overseeing gas and oil drilling in Texas," Ramit Plushnick-Masti of The Associated Press reports. "The EPA's move could ratchet up a bitter fight between Texas and the EPA that has evolved in the past year from a dispute over environmental issues into a pitched battle over states rights."

The order was issued against Range Resources of Fort Worth because EPA regional director Al Armendariz said he felt "the Texas Railroad Commission was not responding quickly enough to contamination found in two water wells belonging to Parker County residents in North Texas," Plushnick-Masti writes. Range Resources was using hydraulic fracturing, in which thousands of gallons of water and other chemicals are injected into a well to release natural gas from shale formations, at their drilling operations. The drinking water contamination is believed to be the first possibly associated with fracking operations in Texas, AP reports.

Armendariz said "the Railroad Commission had said it would be 'premature' to issue an emergency order regarding the contamination and asked for more time to evaluate the data," Plushnick-Masti writes. The EPA inspected the wells with the Railroad Commission in August after receiving complaints from locals who were having problems with their drinking water. The agency found high levels of explosive methane, as well as other contaminants, including cancer-causing benzene, AP reports. "We thought what we found in the homes was alarming," Armendariz told AP. (Read more)