In a mashup of two environmental risk , fracking has been producing PFAS . For at least a decade , the Environmental Protection Agency has allow fossil oil companies to utilize certain chemicals for fracking , even though the authority experience they could disgrace into PFAS — a mathematical group of extremely toxic chemical compounds — over time .
InternalEPA documents , secure through a Freedom of Information Act and exhaust by Physicians for Social Responsibility on Monday , show that in 2011 under President Barrack Obama , the agency greenlit the use of three chemical known as P-11- 0091 , P-11 - 0092 , and P-11 - 0093 . Each can assist oil flow out of the reason more readily . The commendation came despite the fact that the EPA itself had raised concerns about the substance ’ effects on human health .
The finding suggest that between 2012 and 2020 , the substances were used in more than 1,200 wells across Arkansas , Louisiana , Oklahoma , New Mexico , Texas , and Wyoming , establish on theFracFocus database , which tracks chemical substance used in fracking mental process . Since not all state require company to report which chemicals they apply , the literal number of well where the toxic chemicals were used could be much high .
Photo: Paul Ratje (Getty Images)
Physicians for Social Responsibility also obtained a hazard assessment and consent order from the way focused on the substances . Though both were hard cast , they make it clear that the agency doubt the compounds were safe .
“ EPA has concerns that these degradation product will hang on in the surround , could bioaccumulate or biomagnify , and could be toxic ( PBT ) to multitude , barbarian mammalian , and Bronx cheer establish on data on parallel chemicals , including PFOA and [ REDACTED ] , ” EPA scientist wrote in the consent order , dated October 26 , 2011 . They also recommended further testing for the chemicals , but there is no evidence that any was done .
We ’ve known that fracking is extremely dangerous long before these revelations come to light . It give rise harmful air pollution , including formaldehyde , which can induce cancer , and atomic number 1 sulphide , whichcan hurtcardiovascular and respiratory systems . Accordingtonumerousstudies , it ’s particularly harmful to the poor community of interests who are forced to live near operations . Then there ’s the mood wallop ; frackingproduces methane , a greenhouse gas that ’s 84 time more potent than carbon in the curt terminus .
Still , the report pose bare novel scandalous risks . Among them , it shows that fracking comes with an extra risk of exposure for those working at boring sites and living downriver from them . PFAS — chemicals that are find in everything fromfood packagingtoelectronicsto thedrinking water of 80 million Americans — have beenlinkedto a Brobdingnagian raiment of health problem . Those outlet includehormone disruption , gamey cholesterol , immune deficiency , and multiple kinds of Crab . PFAS are toxic even invery low concentration , and they do n’t well bust down in the human dead body or the environs , pull in them the byname “ forever chemicals . ” Yet the EPA had never made its approval of these three toxic fracking chemical publically cognise .
“ The evidence that citizenry could be unknowingly expose to these exceedingly toxic chemical through petroleum and gas pedal operations is disturbing , ” Dusty Horwitt , an lawyer and researcher who co - author the Physicians for Social Responsibility report , state in astatement . “ consider the terrible chronicle of contamination associated with PFAS , EPA and state authorities need to move quickly to assure that the world knows where these chemicals have been used and is protected from their impacts . ”
O.K. these chemical substance was n’t the only mode that the Obama - era EPA knowingly put hoi polloi in danger from fracking . In 2013 , DeSmogrevealed that the agencykilled a study that showed a clear connectedness between fracking in Pennsylvania and groundwater contamination . Obama ’s predecessor was n’t exactly unspoilt ; under former President Donald Trump , theEPA block a major report on PFASand wasextremely shadyabout work with extremity of Congress who represented districts with sullen PFAS core , include the Michigan district home to Flint .
There ’s clearly a lot of study to do to restore the public ’s trust and break down on these toxic chemical . The Biden giving medication haspromised to tackle PFAS contamination . In the report , the writer limn some ways it could do so . The recommendations include further assessing the wellness effects of PFAS exposure , testing and tracking where PFAS was used in fossil fuel drilling to see if nearby soils and groundwater are pollute , and forcing oil and gaseous state and chemical firms to fund comprehensive cleanup . The group also call for the politics to need full public disclosure of what chemical substance will be used at rock oil and gas Herbert George Wells before they can even be developed and for a moratorium on PFAS and chemicals that can break away down into PFAS by fossil fuel companies .
Of course , the authorities should also justphase out frackingand other shape of fossil fuel extraction in all , and chop-chop , to avert climate catastrophe . We did n’t really need another reason to do so , but now we ’ve got one .
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