Let clean bill of health aid in fracking’s recovery

A long-awaited report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released this month strengthens the stand of the oil and gas drilling industry that hydraulic fracturing can be executed safely and with little risk to the purity of the drinking water of millions of Americans.

As such, the findings from the large-scale, multiyear study also should soften the emotionally charged rhetoric and halt some of the extremist tactics of a few well-intentioned but misguided groups of anti-fracking activists. Clearly, the EPA report demands respect. The voluminous document resulted from reviews of more than 3,000 peer- reviewed studies and scientific reports on the fracking industry plus findings from 20 of the EPA’s own independent studies conducted across the county over the past four years. From that research, EPA authorities concluded that properly regulated fracking has no “widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water sources in the U.S.”

Nonetheless, the study did leave the door open for a few concerns. The agency did find limited and isolated cases in which fracking did adversely affect the quality of drinking water, including contamination of drinking-water wells. Even though the number of such cases was trifling in relation to the total number of wells tested, the details on the problems and how to avoid them should become must reading for state- oversight officials, drilling-industry leaders and others charged with ensuring maximum public health and safety near well sites. They also should serve as a springboard for more study and action aimed at preventing any and all potential health and safety threats.

DON’T MISUSE FINDINGS

They should not, however, be grabbed onto as ammunition by groups such as Frack Free Mahoning Valley to advance their assault on 21st-century drilling technology. Such groups must remember that the weaknesses remain the exceptions to the study’s overall conclusion that fracking does not foul water supplies.

For example, if FFMV were considering a fifth attempt at a ballot issue to ban hydraulic fracturing in Youngstown, we’d hope the study gives them pause. In addition, an Ohio Supreme Court decision earlier this year concluding that state law trumps all local laws in the regulation and oversight of drilling should also stop such an initiative in its tracks.

With proper regulation and monitoring, fracking has reaped and can continue to reap great energy-independence and economic-growth dividends. Due to a variety of factors, the drilling industry has stagnated over the past year, taking a toll through downsizing and layoffs at drilling companies and support industries, such as Youngstown’s sprawling state-of-the-art Vallourec mills.

Let the findings of the EPA report bring some peace of mind to residents and drillers alike and serve as one catalyst for a revitalized industry. Let it also serve as a launching pad for further aggressive research, oversight and action to ensure fracking’s relatively strong bill of health grows only stronger.