Testing Your Water
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Unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD, or “fracking”) has the potential to impact water quality at many stages of the process. If your water comes from a private well, you should be particularly aware of water quality issues. Private well water quality is not regulated in the United States, and well owners are responsible for performing their own monitoring. Regular monitoring is particularly important if you live within three miles of UOGD activities.
Oil and gas well drilling activity, if properly conducted, does not necessarily contaminate groundwater. While properly drilled gas wells should keep contaminants from seeping into underground aquifers, some wells fail to do so, allowing methane and other chemicals to reach drinking water supplies. Unpredictable chemical releases from poorly managed drill sites, leaky wastewater pits, accidental spills, and truck accidents that occur above ground can also affect the quality of your well water.
Additionally, some of the fluids pumped into the ground during the gas extraction process flow back to the surface. This wastewater is called "flowback" and can be contaminated with industrial and naturally occurring toxic substances. Some of the contaminants can alter the taste, odor, or clarity of well water while others are difficult to detect.
Municipal water supplies may also be at risk from UOGD due to surface water discharges, insufficient treatment of contaminated wastewater, and byproducts formed at drinking water treatment facilities by the reaction between hydraulic fracturing contaminants and disinfectants. More study
into this issue is needed, and the EPA is currently investigating the impacts of UOGD on public water supplies.
How Water Quality Affects You
Exposure to chemicals used in unconventional oil and gas drilling or “fracking” can occur in several ways: ingesting chemicals that have spilled and entered drinking water sources, absorbing chemicals through direct skin contact, or breathing in vapors from flowback wastes stored in pits or tanks.
According to The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, an examination of the toxicity of 353 chemicals used in fracking found that many are dangerous to human health:
• 25% can cause cancer and mutations.
• 37% affect the endocrine system.
• 40 – 50% affect the brain, kidneys, and nervous, immune, and cardiovascular systems.
• More than 75% affect the skin, eyes or other sensory organs, and the respiratory and/or gastrointestinal systems.