The information in the Motley Fool story has been previously reported at the blog, but this is the first time the two stories appear together, coherently. Very, very nice to see.
As often noted, I generally don't care for superficiality of Motley Fool stories, but this one is a good one. A big "thank you" to the reader for sending it to me. From the linked article:
Yet oil and gas industry services specialist Nuverra Environmental Solutions has been telling anyone who will listen that fracking doesn't cause groundwater pollution. The company, which was previously known as Heckmann and is the leading supplier of water to the oil and gas industry, says fracking occurs 10,000 feet below the surface -- and water seeps down, not up, so the probability that it is responsible for the polluted water supplies is negligible.
The DOE study, which injected tracer chemicals into the fracking fluids so they could follow them, confirmed that. It injected the fluids some 8,000 feet below the surface and then monitored for them at 5,000 feet. None were ever detected, meaning that groundwater -- which is typically situated around 500 feet below the surface -- was about a mile away from any potential contamination.
No doubt those conclusions are behind the EPA's decision to drop its study of groundwater contamination in Wyoming, instead allowing the state to complete it. Originally, the study was slated to be peer reviewed, but after questions about its methodology arose, it decided to abandon it altogether."Water seeps up, not down." Sometimes one wonders if any of the activist environmentalists ever graduated from 8th grade, and/or understand the principle of gravity. Thank goodness hydrocarbons have their unique "fingerprints" which makes it possible to identify source of hydrocarbons.
