New Study 'Exonerates' Fracking

A new study suggests fracking may not be as big a threat to the water supply as was previously thought.

A new study "exonerates fracking from the most serious environmental risks. The study blames the water contamination on leaky well shafts near the earth’s surface, not on the process of hydraulic fracturing itself, which takes place thousands of feet underground," The News & Observer reported.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that environmental hazards would be reduced if wells were built properly. The study sampled 133 drinking water in Texas and Pennsylvania.

“The implication is that future improvements in well integrity will keep methane out of drinking water,” Thomas Darrah, the study's lead author, said to the Columbus Dispatch. Overall, this line of inquiry "will improve the safety and economics of shale-gas extraction," the study said.

The study may be positive news for the energy industry.

"Where contamination occurs, it related strictly to well integrity," Darrah said, per the Wall Street Journal. "The answer is not to stop drilling. The fix is better executions on the construction of the well and improving well integrity."

Duke Professor Avner Vengosh explained the upside of the study.

“We’re saying to the industry, the good news is we don’t think [water contamination] is actually from the hydraulic fracturing itself,” Vengosh said, per The News & Observer. “So far we can say pretty categorically that we have not seen escape of the gas from the shale formation into the overlying aquifers.”

How did drilling companies react?

"Energy in Depth, a group funded by the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said the science needs further review," the Journal reported.

"I don't think you are going to find anyone in the industry who disagrees with the importance of well integrity and constructing wells properly," spokesman Steve Everley said, per the report.