EPA Releases Guidelines on the Use of Diesel Fuel in Fracking Fluid
Environment New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM – Today, as we learn more every day about the chemicals used in fracking that threaten our environment and health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a long-awaited guidance for regulating the use of diesel fuel in fracking fluid under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Investigations show that diesel fuel, known to be hazardous to human health, has been used in fracking operations in New Mexico.
“After the chemical spill disaster in West Virginia that left 300,000 West Virginians unable to drink their tap water, the threats to our drinking water couldn’t be more clear. We know that diesel fuel is a known carcinogen, but companies have reported using diesel fuel in fracking fluid in New Mexico,” said Sanders Moore, Director of Environment New Mexico. “The EPA has made a small step toward curbing one of many threats from fracking. And while EPA lacks the authority to stop fracking entirely, the agency can and should bar the use of diesel fuel in fracking fluid, once and for all.”
Fracking, a form of oil and gas drilling, uses toxic chemicals, sometimes including diesel fuel, mixed with millions of gallons of fresh water, to extract gas and oil reserves deep below the earth’s surface. Fracking is prevalent in New Mexico, but recent studies have shown that fracking is adding stress to New Mexico’s already scare water supply. Diesel fuel is incredibly toxic. It contains benzene, a known carcinogen, as well as toluene, ethyl benzene, and xylenes, which can damage our liver, kidneys and central nervous system. Benzene alone is so toxic that the concentration in drinking water “below which there is no known or expected risk to health” is zero.
In 2011, the Obama administration convened a panel to make recommendations on shale gas development to the U.S. Department of Energy Science Advisory Board. The panel’s findings concluded “there is no technical or economic reason to use diesel in shale gas production.” As far back as 2004, the U.S. EPA concluded that the “use of diesel fuel in fracturing fluids poses the greatest threat to underground sources of drinking water.”
A 2011 inquiry by Reps. Henry Waxman (Cali.) and Ed Markey (Mass.) revealed that the oil and gas industry used at least 32 million gallons of fracking fluid containing diesel fuel in 19 states from 2005 to 2009, including more than 600,000 gallons in New Mexico. Continued use of diesel in fracking fluid was confirmed again in August 2012 in an estimated 408 wells nationwide.
