The long awaited report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on fracking and its effect on drinking water is being welcomed by the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association. It’s provincial Vice-President, Joel Richardson points out this study was an exhaustive study done over four years.
The report concluded there were no ill effects so long as the proper safeguards were in place.
The nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council says the study did find there has been contamination of drinking water but the E-P-A report states these have been rare and not systemic.
The New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance maintains the report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the effect of fracking on drinking water is just one of many reports Premier Brian Gallant should examine before deciding on shale gas.
Jim Emberger of the Alliance says the E-P-A study was narrowly focused and it’s not as if the E-P-A study did not find cases of water contamination but were forced to back off because of pressure from U.S. Senators who favour shale gas.
Emberger says a study done in New York was far more exhaustive than what the E-P-A did and its findings formed the basis of that state banning hydraulic fracturing.
