Fracking is demonstrably an environmental nightmare. As well as the impacts of the fossil fuels extracted with it, there's widespread pollution of water tables and even earthquakes in some areas where fracking is widespread. Now there's another nasty impact that could be the worst of all.
In a mashup of two environmental dangers, fracking has been producing PFAS. For at least a decade, the Environmental Protection Agency has allowed oil companies to use certain chemicals for fracking, even though the agency knew they could degrade into PFAS—a group of highly toxic chemical compounds—over time.
Internal EPA documents, secured through a Freedom of Information Act and released by Physicians for Social Responsibility on Monday, show that in 2011 under President Barrack Obama, the agency greenlit the use of three chemicals known as P-11- 0091, P-11-0092, and P-11-0093. Each can help oil flow out of the ground more readily. The approval came despite the fact that the EPA itself had raised concerns about the substances’ effects on human health.
The findings 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, based on the FracFocus database, which tracks chemicals used in fracking operations. Since not all states require companies to report which chemicals they use, the actual number of well where the toxic chemicals were used could be much higher.
If anyone knows if these chemicals are licensed for use in Canada, please leave a comment.
1 comment:
This https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/chemical-substances/other-chemical-substances-interest/per-polyfluoroalkyl-substances.html would suggest probably not but who knows
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