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Bingahmton Press & Sun-Bulletin - Every person deserves access to safe, clean drinking water -- our most precious natural resource. New York, in particular, has long prided itself on having some of the nation's most naturally pure drinking water supplies. It has achieved that high standard, and continues to do so, under New York state laws passed more than two decades ago. I'm determined to maintain that high standard.
That's why I'm working so hard in Congress to restore the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to protect drinking water supplies in other states across our country. Fracking is used to extract natural gas buried in rock formations by injecting a fluid into the ground composed of sand, water, and chemicals, some of which are toxic like benzene and toluene. The EPA had the authority to regulate fracking under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) up until 2005 when a misguided energy bill, which I vehemently opposed, stripped the agency of this authority. As a result, the oil and gas industry is now the only industry in the U.S. that cannot be regulated under the SDWA.
Natural gas drilling, when done properly, has an important place in our national energy policy. The Marcellus Shale provides New York with a real opportunity for economic growth if the proper environmental protections are in place. However, we cannot afford to get this wrong. While the economic benefits of drilling are potentially great, the potentially disastrous economic and public health consequences of failing to protect our water supplies would be exponentially greater.
That's why I've coauthored the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act of 2009. This important legislation would reverse the 2005 exemption and restore the EPA's authority under the SDWA. Additionally, the bill would require companies to honestly disclose the contents of fracturing fluid in order to increase public awareness and to enable state and local regulators to properly control the chemicals being pumped into the ground.
It's important to note that should this bill become law, it would enable the EPA to establish a minimum federal standard that New York's regulations would most likely exceed. This bill would not adversely impact the New York Department of Environmental Conservation's efforts to protect the public. The measure would help increase protections in other states, including those neighboring New York, and it would also provide a federal safeguard against any future efforts in New York to weaken the state's guidelines.
To clarify some misconceptions about the bill: it doesn't ban fracturing or natural gas drilling in New York or anywhere else; it doesn't prescribe new regulations that would stifle natural gas development; and it doesn't impose any delays on utilizing natural gas resources. The bill simply restores commonsense protections that were in place prior to 2005.
Additionally, I've authored a separate legislative measure that urges the EPA to conduct a study on the impact that fracking poses to drinking water supplies across the country. This measure, which has already passed the House, would help the EPA gain a true understanding of the impact that fracking has on drinking water supplies so that the agency will be ready to take any necessary protective action should we successfully restore its regulatory authority to oversee fracking.
The oil and gas industry maintains that fracking is a practice that's been safely used for decades. If that's the case then the industry has nothing to worry about because the EPA wouldn't find anything objectionable in the practice. However, while the practice of fracking has been around for some time, energy companies are now using new concoctions of toxic chemicals on a grander scale than ever before. Evidence from drilling sites across the country gives reason for concern. In just the last month, the EPA opened a formal investigation into links between contamination at 11 drinking wells in Wyoming and nearby natural gas development, including fracking.
The true environmental impact of fracking is not entirely known, but there are enough red flags that make it absolutely worth restoring the EPA's authority to protect drinking water supplies from any chemicals that are planned to be pumped into the ground. We cannot put ourselves in a position where 5, 10, or 50 years from now, people are left wondering how our current generation was so foolish as to not take commonsense precautions to safeguard our most vital resource. We have nothing to lose by restoring the EPA's authority, but we could lose everything if we don't.
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