Free Poison Spring by E. G. Vallianatos Page B

the EPA’s 2004 report to shape the Energy Policy Act, which exempted gas drillers from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act. This public health abomination became known as the Halliburton loophole. 7
    It didn’t take long for the scientific community to raise the alarm about the dangers of all these chemicals in drinking water supplies. Theo Colborn, a Colorado resident and a nationally recognized expert on the effects of poisons on the human endocrine system, has identified 171 products composed of 245 chemicals used in fracking fluids. Close to 90 percent of the volatile chemicals cause irritation to the skin, eye, sinuses, nose, throat, lungs, and stomach and cause effects on the brain and nervous system ranging from headaches, blackouts, memory loss, confusion, fatigue or exhaustion, and permanent neuropathies, she told a congressional panel in 2007. More than half can cause disorders to the cardiovascular, kidney, reproductive and immune systems. 8
    Do we really want this toxic cocktail pouring into our drinking water? Congress doesn’t seem to mind; it ignored Colborn’s warnings. And in the years since, politicians from both parties have pushed the gas companies’ fracking mission with an evangelical fervor, using their full voice to convince the world that America is the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. Most congressional members of panels reviewing studies are associated with the industry. Oklahoma, a major gas drilling state, illustrates this sordid policy. The state’s Republican senators, James Inhofe and Tom Coburn, have spent their political careers defending gas drilling, always pressuring EPA to stay clear of their pet industries. In return, the drilling industries have rewarded them handsomely. As a result, in Oklahoma and other states, the “mystery liquids” of toxic gas and oil drilling wastes continue to contaminate the nation’s waters. 9
    Nationwide, the mania for gas well drilling has simply overwhelmed state officials. New Mexico, for instance, has 99,000 gas wells but only eighteen inspectors. How can they possibly safeguard the state’s drinking water? 10
    While some elected officials pay lip service to protecting the public health, it’s hard to be convinced by such expressions of good faith. “We have a supply of gas that can last America one hundred years, and my administration will take every possible action to safely develop this energy,” President Obama said in his 2012 State of the Union speech. “I’m requiring all companies that drill for gas on public lands to disclose the chemicals they use. America will develop this resource without putting the health and safety of our citizens at risk. We don’t have to choose between our environment and our economy.”
    Given the Washington establishment’s history—and his own—Obama’s promises for health and safety did not sound sincere. He made no effort to get rid of the Halliburton loophole, so fracking fluids are still (unbelievably) exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act. And as his EPA prepares another study of fracking and drinking water, gas industry lobbyists and their congressional clients are adding more pressure to simply confirm the results of the morally bankrupt 2004 study.
    In this gold-rush climate, it’s hard to imagine drinking water advocates getting anything like a fair hearing. Senator Inhofe, long a fiery booster of the petrochemical industry, has cautioned the EPA not to use outside experts “who have been longtime critics of hydraulic fracturing.” When the EPA announced in December 2011 that they had linked fracking to water contamination near Pavilion, Wyoming, Inhofe described the findings as “offensive.” 11
    So here we are: once again giant corporations are acting with impunity, muscling local officials and members of Congress to nullify environmental regulations. Just as banks considered “too big to fail” wrecked the lives of millions of Americans, the hucksters in the gas industry