EPA Selects Killdeer in Dunn County to Test Fracking Impact on Drinking Water

Updates

(Related) July 1, 2015, The Sidney (MT) Herald is reporting:

As many of you have heard, the Environmental Protection Agency released the results of a five-year study on hydraulic fracturing liquids and the risk they potentially have on clean drinking water around well sites.

The EPA has ruled out that the slew of chemicals used in fracking does not pose a significant threat to drinking water resources around drill sites. This news is a resounding defeat for environmentalists who have been arguing against the industrial practice since its mainstream arrival in 2004.

Killdeer, N.D., in Dunn County was one of the six target locations in the study. The other five were in Wise County, Texas, Bradford, Susquehanna and Washington counties in Pennsylvania, and Las Animas and Huerfano counties in Colorado.

Water, which composes a little under 90 percent of the chemicals used in fracturing fluid, has the potential of running into underground aquifers and surface water. The controversy surrounding the practice has caused states like New York and Maryland to ban the practice for two to three years. The French parlément has banned it nationally and in its sovereign territories across the world.

The EPA said that they “...conclude there are above and below ground mechanisms by which hydraulic fracturing activities have the potential to impact drinking water resources,” they however, “...did not find evidence that these mechanism have led to widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States,” according to the EPA’s Assessment of the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas on Drinking Water Resources released on June 1.

(Unrelated) May 13, 2015: results of the retrospective case study, hydraulic fracture, blowout, Killdeer, Dunn County; the Franchuk 44-20 SHW well; during the 5th stage of a 23-stage fracture;
(Unrelated) Undated, Retrospective Case Study, hydraulic fracture, blowout, September, 2010;  

Original Post
Link here. Regional links break early.

Killdeer in Dunn County was chosen for a study focusing on hydraulic fracturing’s impact on drinking water, the Environmental Protection Agency announced today.

The EPA has identified seven case studies. The sites chosen were selected following extensive input from stakeholders, including the public, local and state officials, industry and environmental organizations, according to the agency.

The EPA will begin field work in some of the selected regions this summer.

I could be wrong, but of the seven sites, it looks like Dunn County is the only site targeting deep formation oil; the other sites target natural gas. (I could be wrong; I'm not sure about one or two of the other sites.)

EPA does not include Wyoming in fracking study; assumption is that Wyoming has adequate oversight of fracking.