Drilling, fracking occurring at shallower depths than thought, closer to drinking-water sources

Oil and gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing are occurring much closer to drinking-water sources than previously thought, Neela Banerjee reports for the Los Angeles Times. A study by Stanford University researchers found that "energy companies are fracking for oil and gas at far shallower depths than widely believed, sometimes through underground sources of drinking water." (Business Insider map: The study was conducted in Wyoming's Pavillion Gas Field in the Wind River Basin)

Oil and gas companies contend that fracking has never contaminated drinking water. The study showed no direct evidence of water-supply contamination, and the companies are not operating in violation of any laws, Banerjee notes.

Drilling through "underground drinking water sources is not prohibited by the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which exempted the practice from key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act. But the industry has long held that it does not hydraulically fracture into underground sources of drinking water because oil and gas deposits sit far deeper than aquifers," Banerjee writes. "The study, however, found . . . companies used acid stimulation and hydraulic fracturing at depths of the deepest water wells near the Pavillion gas field, at 700 to 750 feet, far shallower than fracking was previously thought to occur in the area. The EPA documented in 2004 that fracking into drinking-water sources had occurred when companies extracted natural gas from coal seams. But industry officials have long denied that the current oil and gas boom has resulted in fracking into drinking-water sources because the hydrocarbon deposits are located in deeper geological formations." (Read more)