Senate committee holds hearings on hydrofracking

The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held hearings Tuesday on the use of hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, a controversial new technique for mining natural gas that is expected to be used on more than half a million acres of Michigan land.

The Baltimore Sun reports:

Robert M. Summers, acting secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment, said he supported legislation in Congress that would increase federal oversight of the process and require companies to disclose the chemicals they use…

“We need the federal government to take a more active role,” Summers told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. He said state officials continue to review applications from two companies that want to drill for natural gas in the Marcellus shale deposits of Western Maryland.

“While we believe states should retain the responsibility and should be able to enact more stringent requirements if they desire,” he said, “the federal regulatory floor will ensure at least basic protections of public health.”

The environmental group Earth Justice released the following statement:

“The country is in the midst of an unprecedented gas drilling boom – brought on by the controversial technology known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.” Along with this fracking-fueled gas rush have come troubling reports of poisoned drinking water, polluted air, mysterious animal deaths, industrial disasters and explosions.

“Given the tremendous risks facing Americans, we’re encouraged that leaders in the Senate are taking the time to study this issue.

“Hydraulic fracturing is currently exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act, so oil and gas companies are only required to comply with a patchwork of state regulations. And thanks to a loophole in the Clean Air Act for oil and gas companies, drilling areas in Wyoming now have worse air quality than Los Angeles.

“Drillers are clamoring for access to regions of the country that are unprepared for this scale of industrial gas drilling. Without a federal floor to protect drinking water in states without sufficient regulations, we could end up jeopardizing air and water supplies for millions of people.

“As we heard in this morning’s hearing, there are serious implications of inadequate wastewater treatment oversight — particularly in Pennsylvania, where gas drillers are generating contaminated water faster than the state’s treatment plants can handle it and companies are dumping insufficiently treated fracking wastewater directly into rivers and streams.

“Bills pending before Congress would remove the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Air Act loopholes. Congress needs to pass this legislation and quickly. The millions of Americans whose drinking water and air quality is at stake don’t have time to waste.”