After a Washington, PA resident suspected his water had been polluted with fracking chemicals, a judge ordered Range Resources Corp to disclose every proprietary chemical, substance and product the company used during the drilling process relating to the impoundment located just 3000 feet from his home. Thirty days later, Range Resources could only identify some of the chemicals they pump into the Marcellus Shale.
If blatant ignorance is standard practice at Range, how many other natural gas companies are doing the same thing? This is where the EPA can rein in an industry that plays by its own rules.
Send your letter today! Tell EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to stand up to the natural gas industry, and put the health of our communities first.
Dear EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy,
The natural gas industry is out of control, and the EPA must step up to protect our communities from fracking pollution.
All communities are entitled to safe drinking water and have the right to know that widespread drilling and fracking will not pollute underground aquifers. I urge you to reopen the fracking contamination investigations in Dimock, Pennsylvania, Parker County, Texas and Pavillion, Wyoming.
The EPA should also be actively and affirmatively addressing the significant exemptions the oil and gas industry enjoys. Now is the time to use your authority to put key protections in place. Manufacturers and distributors of fracking chemicals should conduct toxicity tests on all exploration and production chemicals and inform the public under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Dangerous waste from oil and gas drilling should be reclassified as hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Gas companies should have to treat these chemicals for what they really are: toxic. Last, all toxic chemicals released should be reported to both the EPA and the public under the Toxics Release Inventory of Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act.
[Your comments will go here]
Keeping communities in the dark about the dangers of fracking pollution is inexcusable. The natural gas industry does not deserve more protections than the public. It's time for the EPA to implement common sense measures to better protect our communities.
Sincerely
[Your name]
