![]() ![]() In January 2010 a report released by the environmental watchdog Environmental Working Group highlighted problems posed to drinking-water supplies by fracking, including contamination by cancer-causing chemicals. ĭue to the Halliburton loophole, the Safe Drinking Act regulates benzene containing diesel-based fluids but no other petroleum products with much higher levels of benzene. The Environmental Integrity Project identified numerous fracking fluids with high amounts of diesel, including additives, friction reducers, emulsifiers, solvents sold by Halliburton. The Environmental Integrity Project 2014 study "Fracking Beyond The Law, Despite Industry Denials Investigation Reveals Continued Use of Diesel Fuels in Hydraulic Fracturing," found that hydraulic fracturing with diesel fuel can pose a risk to drinking water and human health because diesel contains benzene, toluene, xylene, and other chemicals that have been linked to cancer and other health problems. The organization argues that diesel use is widely under reported. The Environmental Integrity Project extensively researched diesel in fracking. Diesel in Frackingįrom 2010 to July 2014 drillers in the state of Utah reported using 496.91 gallons of diesel injected into one single well. ![]() In February 2013 a government study reported that Utah's oil and gas industry operations were the primary source of wintertime ozone-producing pollution in northeastern Utah. The multi-agency study found that 98 to 99 percent of the volatile organic compounds and 57 to 61 percent of the nitrogen oxides in the region came from oil and gas operations. In winter 2012, NOAA and University of Colorado at Boulder researchers began fanning out across the Uintah Basin to determine the link between the area's 10,000 oil and gas wells and high levels of winter ozone. Even with the reductions and investments, in March 2011, there was a 124 ppb ozone reading. In response, the oil and gas industry made more than $100 million in investments to curb emissions and set up a system to cut activity on days when ozone is likely to form. The peak value in 2011 was 139 parts per billion, according to Utah officials - 85 percent higher than the federal health standard of 75 ppb, and above the 99 ppb peak for 2011 in the bustling New York metropolitan area. In 20, ozone levels in Utah's Uintah Basin soared. Currently Utah does not require for groundwater monitoring by companies operating wastewater facilities. State regulators are now looking at dozens of other waste water sites around the state. As a result the company was fined $50,0000 in early August, 2014. However, regulators have found that the company, by allowing the water to simply evaporate, was releasing methanol and other volatile organic compounds directly into the air. Since that time the company has allowed the wastewater to evaporate into the air without acquiring an air quality permit. The ponds are filled with oil and gas wastewater from fracking operations taking place in Colorado. In 2007, 14 fracking wastewater ponds were built by Danish Flats Environmental Services, in Clark County, near the Colorado border. The report vastly overshot the EPA’s estimate of. The research was published in 2013, and reported a methane leakage rate of 6.2 to 11.7% in the Basin. The NOAA researchers collected their data in February 2012 as part of a broader analysis of air pollution in the Uinta Basin, using ground-based equipment and an aircraft to make detailed measurements of various pollutants, including methane concentrations. In September 2012 researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Colorado in Boulder reported preliminary results from a field study in the Uinta Basin of Utah suggesting methane leakage of up to 9% of total gas production, nearly double the cumulative loss rates estimated from industry data. History Environmental impacts Methane leakage 2011 Utah natural gas rates were the lowest in the continental United States at $8.98 per thousand cubic feet. Natural gas production in the area has steadily increased and reached an all-time high of 226 billion cubic feet (BCF) in 2006. Over the past decade hydraulic fracturing has increased in Utah’s Uinta Basin. ![]()
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