With nearly 30,000 new injection wells being drilled each year,
hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," is a rapidly
expanding method of oil and gas extraction which involves injecting
large volumes of fluid or sand at high pressure into an underground
well to extract oil and gas from fractures created in the
underground rock. Fracking's proliferation has been
contentious, and last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency aligned itself with fracking industry advocates when it
released its long-awaited assessment of the impacts of hydraulic
fracturing on drinking water.
After evaluating the various mechanisms by which fracking could
impact drinking water resources, the EPA found no evidence that
hydraulic fracturing has led to widespread, systemic change in the
quality or quantity of drinking water resources in the United
States. The only evidence of fracking's impacts on drinking
water were isolated incidents, almost all of which are traceable to
the small subset
