Environmental Agency to Study Fracking in US

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will commence visits to locations in five states where its investigators will study the safety of hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’ as it is more commonly referred to.

EPA investigators will study places where fracking has already taken place and look for any impact on residential water wells and other sources of drinking water.

Part of the study will see EPA investigators to look at the effects on drinking water through the entire life-cycle of a horizontally drilled, hydraulically fractured shale gas or oil shale well, in two locations in Louisiana’s DeSoto County and Pennsylvania's Washington County.

Sites in the Marcellus, Barnett and Raton shale basins, will all be studied for any effects past drilling has had on drinking water, EPA said.

The case studies were selected by the EPA on criteria including the proximity of people and drinking water supplies to fracking sites. For the retrospective studies, concerns about impaired water quality and health and environmental impacts were also taken into account.

"This is an important part of a process that will use the best science to help us better understand the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water," Paul Anastas, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Research and Development, said in a statement.

The study, which was mandated by Congress, is expected to publish interim conclusions by the end of 2012, with final results in 2014.