The Dec. 9 Ithaca Journal contained a five-paragraph article, "EPA implicates fracking in pollution," about a draft report that fracking chemicals were found in the groundwater beneath Pavillion, Wyo. So much information was missing that anyone reading only the article was seriously misled.

 

After personally analyzing the findings, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said that, with respect to Pavillion, "we have absolutely no indication now that drinking water is at risk." Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that "the jury's still out" on the validity of the report. Tom Doll of the Wyoming O&GCC said "more tests are needed to rule out ... surface contamination."

 

The 121-page EPA report raises questions, such as why there is a huge difference between what the EPA found in the monitoring wells they drilled and what was detected in private wells from which people actually draw their water. Did the EPA perhaps contaminate its own test by using dense soda ash in drilling, which has a high pH similar to hydrofracturing chemicals? Or is it perhaps because the EPA drilled deeper than the private water wells and hit a hydrocarbon-bearing formation?

 

This article cries out for a balanced follow-up.

 

Tracy Marisa,

Town of Dryden