Between 2005 and 2009, oil and natural gas companies operating in 14 states injected hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic and/or carcinogenic chemicals into natural gas wells, according to a recent investigation conducted by three House Democrats and made public on Saturday.

This estimated volume is at least an order of magnitude greater than was cited in a preliminary report back in February, which estimated just over 30 million gallons pumped underground.

The pressurized pumping of large quantities of waste materials, minerals and chemical liquids (some of which are toxic) deep underground during drilling is part of the process of hydraulic fracturing, or ‘hydrofracking’ (or just ‘fracking’) that aids the fracturing of bedrock, making it easier to extract/release trapped oil and natural gas.

The industry technique has earned great criticism of late by some politicians and most environmental groups because of its reported use of diesel fuel (which contains benzene, a carcinogen) and other B.T.E.X. chemicals (benzene, toluene, xylene and ethylbenzene) which they fear may be contaminating local water tables through rock leakage, unstable wells, and/or ground seepage from well over-flow.

Quoting from Saturday’s NY Times article:

"[The report] “also found that 14 of the nation’s most active hydraulic fracturing companies used 866 million gallons of hydraulic fracturing products — not including water. More than 650 of these products contained chemicals that are known or possible human carcinogens, regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, or are listed as hazardous air pollutants.”

An industry critic of the study’s results claims that the methodology used by the committee was flawed in its compiling of total product volumes and not the actual volumes of the chemicals used or their concentrations.

This industry criticism is deceiving, however, insofar as companies have refused to disclose the chemical mixtures used and their average concentrations. In fact, industry concentrations may actually be greater than the government estimates; a 2010 Environmental Working Group study found benzene levels more than 90 times greater than what is found in ordinary diesel fuel.

Further, the report by Representatives Henry A. Waxman of California, Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Diana DeGette of Colorado reveals that many of these hydrofracking companies simply do not know all the chemicals that are being pumped into these wells (currently numbering in the thousands).

To add even more uncertainty and concern to the mix, waste water from this process that isn’t lost to seepage or over-flow is sent to treatment plants that are not equipped to remove the toxins from the water — and the water is then discharged into rivers. Some of this hydraulic waste has been found to be radioactive.

Reprinted with permission from Planetsave