Fracking — which involves the use of high-pressure fluids to extract oil and gas from subterranean rock — is not safe. It is beyond the power of regulations to redeem it — not that any such regulations are in the making.
So concludes the sixth edition of a compendium – the “Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking” — that summarizes more than 1,700 peer-reviewed studies and scientific and investigative journalism reports about threats to the climate and public health from fracking. It was published last June by the nonprofit organizations Physicians for Social Responsibility and Concerned Health Professionals of New York.
Oil and gas extracting operations in the arid Permian Basin used eight times more water for fracking in 2018 than they did in 2011, threatening groundwater supplies. A 2018 analysis of the U.S. oil and gas supply chain found methane leakage rates 60% higher than reported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A 2019 study in southwestern Pennsylvania found shale gas emissions underreported by a factor of five compared to EPA estimates. Researchers in Texas found 19 different fracking-related contaminants — including cancer-causing benzene — in hundreds of drinking water samples collected from the aquifer overlying the heavily drilled Barnett Shale. More than 200 airborne chemical contaminants have been detected near drilling and fracking sites. Of these, 61 are classified as hazardous air pollutants, including carcinogens, and 26 are endocrine-disrupting compounds linked to reproductive, developmental, and neurological damage.
Impairments to infant health, elevated risks for low birth weight, and preterm births are common near fracking operations. In 2017, the most recent year for which data is available, 81 oil and gas extraction workers died on the job, accounting for 72% of the fatal work injuries in the mining sector, which overall has a fatality rate nearly four times the national average.
Significant pipeline accidents happen roughly 300 times each year in the U.S. Between 1998 and 2017, these killed 299 people and injured 1,190, according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
“Across a wide range of parameters, from air and water pollution to radioactivity to social disruption to greenhouse gas emissions, the data continue to reveal a plethora of recurring problems and harms that cannot be sufficiently averted through regulatory frameworks,” write the eight public health doctors and scientists, who compiled the “Compendium.” “There is no evidence that fracking can operate without threatening public health directly and without imperiling climate stability upon which public health depends.” There is now definitive evidence that methane, a potent greenhouse gas, leaks at every stage of the fracking process. Methane also contributes to smog, which is linked to strokes, heart attacks, asthma, and preterm births.
Another area of settled science concerns the earthquakes caused by the underground injection of fracking wastewater. Fracking-linked earthquakes occur over longer periods of time and wider geographic areas than previously thought because of slippery chemicals added to fracking fluid to decrease friction.
Environmental justice and impact on wildlife are two new topics not covered in previous editions of the compendium. Studies have shown that fracking occurs disproportionately in nonwhite, indigenous, or low-income communities. There is also mounting evidence of harms to wildlife from various elements of the process, including toxic water, habitat destruction, and light and noise pollution. Compressor stations have caused populations of grassland songbirds in Canada to decline. Water fleas, a key part of the aquatic food web, are imperiled by even small amounts of fracking fluid in waterways.
At more than 350 pages with 1,400 footnotes linking to pertinent research, annual editions of this compendium have become a critical resource in shedding some light on an industry that, thanks to regulatory loopholes, has been allowed to operate in virtual secrecy.
Numerous scientific findings conclude that fracking isn’t safe — indeed, that is what officials in New York state determined five years ago. But the industry has significant political clout that science alone cannot counter. When fracking came to New York, health professionals translated the science into plain English and brought it to frontline communities. Informed by science, and empowered to have an opinion, people moved to take part in a public process. Tens of thousands of public comments helped move New York to ban fracking, and requests for information about fracking’s health impacts from all over the world have led to the annual updating of the compendium.
We may not currently have fracking in Maine, but we are not immune to harmful acts perpetrated on our environment. There is value in having independent scientists doing research and translating their findings into everyday English. Because nothing is as effective fighting the forces of self-interested greed as informed and empowered people.
(Paul Kando is a co-founder of the Midcoast Green Collaborative, which works to promote environmental protection and economic development via energy conservation. For more information, go to midcoastgreencollaborative.org.)
