Thank you for your question. As you may know, the oil and gas industry is tightly regulated in Pennsylvania by the state’s DEP and follows stringent health and safety protocols to protect workers, the public and the environment.
Regarding the protection of water resources, hydraulic fracturing has never contaminated groundwater, as confirmed by U.S. Energy Sec. Moniz and countless other officials and experts. Recently, in fact, “A landmark federal study on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, shows no evidence that chemicals from the natural gas drilling process moved up to contaminate drinking water aquifers at a western Pennsylvania drilling site,” as the Associated Press reported.
Fracturing does not pose a serious threat for causing earthquakes. A 2012 study by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences explores the link between energy technologies and induced seismicity, or manmade earthquakes. The study found that “hydraulic fracturing a well as presently implemented for shale gas recovery does not pose a high risk for inducing felt seismic events.”
