We are facing a global water shortage while oil and gas companies are buying up massive water rights in order to flush billions of gallons of water into high pressure fracking operations. Fracking or hydraulic fracturing involves injecting water, sand, and chemicals into the shale layer at extremely high pressures in order to release the trapped natural gas. It is a water-intensive practice that uses several million gallons of water for each well. Some of the injected fluids remain trapped underground, but the majority of the injected water—60% to 80%—returns to the surface as "flowback" after the fracking treatment. It typically contains sand, chemical residue, and trace amounts of radioactive elements that naturally occur in many geologic formations. The Clean Water Act generally regulates storm water discharges from industrial and municipal facilities by requiring implementation of pollution prevention plans and, in some cases, remediation or treatment of runoff but the act specifically exempts the oil and gas industry from these storm water management regulatory provisions. CWA Section 402(l)(2) exempts mining operations or oil and gas exploration, production, processing, or treatment operations or transmission facilities from federal storm water regulations. This means that flow back from fracking operations can be released into the environment contaminated with dangerous chemicals and radioactive elements because gas and oil companies are exempt from having to use the pollution prevention practices that apply to all other American citizens. It is up to the American people to ensure our water quality. Please tell the Government, “Don’t frack America!”
