Congress should revisit whether a controversial natural gas drilling method pollutes groundwater in Colo. and elsewhere.

By: The Denver Post

For years, members of Colorado's congressional delegation have been raising questions about a natural gas extraction technique called hydraulic fracturing.

The concern is the widely used method, which boosts production by injecting water and chemicals into the ground, might also be polluting groundwater.

A recent story written by ProPublica, a non-profit investigative newsroom and published Monday in The Post, cites contamination incidents and lends further weight to those concerns.

Congress should revisit the gas extraction method with an eye toward ensuring the quality of drinking water, a precious resource in the dry West.

Specifically, Congress ought to repeal the exemption that allows hydraulic fracturing to escape regulation by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

The exemption came after a 2004 Environmental Protection Agency study concluded the method posed little or no threat to drinking water.

The integrity of that finding was questioned by an EPA environmental engineer based in Denver. He sought whistleblower protection, saying the study's findings were premature, could lead to increased public health problems and were approved by a panel dominated by industry.

The growing use of the technique, developed by Halliburton Co., combined with some troubling incidents in Colorado and the West, raises warning flags that shouldn't be ignored.

In July, a hydrologist found that a well in a rural area of Wyoming with heavy gas drilling was contaminated with benzene, a chemical thought to cause cancer. The concentration, according to the ProPublica story, was 1,500 times the level safe for people.

ProPublica receives funding from The Sandler Foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, among others.

The story said the finding was significant because it was the first time a federal agency documented such contamination. But it also said "more than 1,000 other cases of contamination have been documented by courts and state and local governments in Colorado, New Mexico, Alabama, Ohio and Pennsylvania."

The issue has long been a concern for several in Colorado's congressional delegation.

In 2004, Reps. Mark Udall and Diana DeGette urged a review of the science that led to the assertion that hydraulic fracturing posed little or no threat to drinking water. And this fall, DeGette and Rep. John Salazar introduced a bill that would repeal the 2005 exemption of hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Giving the EPA the authority to monitor water quality where this method is employed is appropriate. Oil and gas exploration is booming, and hydraulic fracturing is used in 90 percent of U.S. natural gas wells.

It's important for the country's energy security to extract these resources, but that cannot come at the expense of our drinking water.