WASHINGTON — America's race for cheap natural gas and energy independence has been outpacing the flow of state rules aimed at assuring people that gas production won't harm their health. Today 24 states have wells that use hydraulic fracturing: pumping water, sand and chemicals into deep layers of rock at high pressure to release oil and gas.
Because the nation's major environmental laws exempt the oil and gas industry, regulating hydraulic fracturing — also known as fracking — is largely up to state environment departments. States have been issuing new rules and guidelines, but often years after the boom began.
The biggest environmental issue, especially in Pennsylvania, the heart of Marcellus Shale formation fracking, is what happens to the wastewater that gushes up from deep in the Earth when a well is fracked. The water is full of salt and contains naturally occurring radioactive elements and metals from deep layers, as well as the fracking chemicals.
newsobserver.com
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