EPA's Water Contamination Investigation Halted In Texas After Range Resources Protest
Source: Salon.com
WEATHERFORD, Texas (AP) When a man in a Fort Worth suburb reported his family's drinking water had begun "bubbling" like champagne, the federal government sounded an alarm: An oil company may have tainted their wells while drilling for natural gas.
At first, the Environmental Protection Agency believed the situation was so serious that it issued a rare emergency order in late 2010 that said at least two homeowners were in immediate danger from a well saturated with flammable methane. More than a year later, the agency rescinded its mandate and refused to explain why.
Now a confidential report obtained by The Associated Press and interviews with company representatives show that the EPA had scientific evidence against the driller, Range Resources, but changed course after the company threatened not to cooperate with a national study into a common form of drilling called hydraulic fracturing. Regulators set aside an analysis that concluded the drilling could have been to blame for the contamination.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/16/epa-water-contamination-investigation-fracking_n_2484568.html
Flammable water that tastes of methane and benzene running from your taps? What's the problem?
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)dotymed
(5,610 posts)"Gas-land" was so infuriating. It showed clearly how average people have no rights when they are up against the profit motivated corporate oil companies or any other corporation...
leftyohiolib
(5,917 posts)rolling
triplepoint
(431 posts)and that's probably why Lisa Jackson finally called it quits as its Director...and after ONLY four years in that particular job!
cer7711
(502 posts)And it's a goddamned outrage, shame and crime!
We need an Elizabeth Warren-type to clean up--or rather, clean out--that now seemingly feckless and corporate-crime apologizing/hiding agency.
BlueManFan
(256 posts)whom the teabaggers are so afraid of. Shit, they shill for the corporations just like everyone else in this banana republic goverment of ours.