The EPA has released a draft report on the effects of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on drinking water, and both advocates and critics of the oil-and-gas-drilling technique claimed vindication. The report notes that fracking has the potential to taint groundwater, highlighting a few instances where the chemicals used in fracking were found in water supplies, including drinking wells, but says those instances of contamination were rare given the tens of thousands of fracking operations — each year since 2011, 25,000 to 30,000 new wells have been drilled and fracked, the report found.
Congress requested the report on fracking and drinking water in 2010, and it won't be finalized until after a period of public comment and peer review by a panel of scientists. The draft report is based on original EPA research and a review of 3,500 published reports. You can read the draft report at the EPA's website.
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