US environmental authority to study shale gas water contamination issues / Five fracking sites selected

摘要

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, Washington, DC; www.epa.gov) has committed itself to clarifying the potential impact on water resources of the controversial hydraulic fracturing (fracking), used in exploration and production of shale gas - among other things for petrochemical production. The first findings are to be presented in 2012. With output of shale gas formations currently estimated at nearly 15% of US natural gas production and a tripling of that figure forecast for the coming decades, EPA says that disposal of contaminated fracking water is increasingly becoming a problem. Many treatment plants are unequipped to deal with the contaminated freight and comprehensive national wastewater standards do not yet exist.