To: Gina McCarthy, EPA Administrator
Tell EPA to Stop the Pro-Industry Spin
I am deeply disappointed by the EPA’s misleading press release for its study of fracking's impacts on drinking water.
While the study itself admits that fracking has been found to contaminate drinking water, the pro-industry spin found in the press release has been used to wrongly assert that fracking is safe.
Putting Americans’ drinking water at risk is simply unacceptable. I urge you to correct this grossly misleading press release and to instead emphasize the actual findings of the study.
While the study itself admits that fracking has been found to contaminate drinking water, the pro-industry spin found in the press release has been used to wrongly assert that fracking is safe.
Putting Americans’ drinking water at risk is simply unacceptable. I urge you to correct this grossly misleading press release and to instead emphasize the actual findings of the study.
Why is this important?
The EPA recently released its long-awaited study of fracking's impacts on drinking water. The oil and gas industry cheered the topline findings highlighted in the EPA's own press release that accompanied the study, which read:
“Assessment shows hydraulic fracturing activities have not led to widespread, systemic impacts to drinking water resources and identifies important vulnerabilities to drinking water resources.”
The industry -- and the media -- ran with this statement and concluded that fracking is safe.
This takeaway offered by the EPA was grossly misleading. The EPA's press release made a subtle but enormously consequential change to the actual findings of the study. What the study actually shows is that, at every turn, the effort of EPA scientists to quantify the extent of fracking's impacts on drinking water resources was thwarted by "data limitations and uncertainties." Despite those limitations and uncertainties — including some of the EPA's own making — the study still confirms what existing scientific data and countless personal experiences have already made clear: fracking does indeed contaminate drinking water resources in numerous ways. (for full assessment: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blogs/how-the-release-of-the-epas-draft-assesment-on-drinking-water-impacts-was-spun/)
Tell EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy that it is her responsibility to correct this misleading statement in the press release and to instead emphasize the very troubling findings of her agency's report.
“Assessment shows hydraulic fracturing activities have not led to widespread, systemic impacts to drinking water resources and identifies important vulnerabilities to drinking water resources.”
The industry -- and the media -- ran with this statement and concluded that fracking is safe.
This takeaway offered by the EPA was grossly misleading. The EPA's press release made a subtle but enormously consequential change to the actual findings of the study. What the study actually shows is that, at every turn, the effort of EPA scientists to quantify the extent of fracking's impacts on drinking water resources was thwarted by "data limitations and uncertainties." Despite those limitations and uncertainties — including some of the EPA's own making — the study still confirms what existing scientific data and countless personal experiences have already made clear: fracking does indeed contaminate drinking water resources in numerous ways. (for full assessment: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blogs/how-the-release-of-the-epas-draft-assesment-on-drinking-water-impacts-was-spun/)
Tell EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy that it is her responsibility to correct this misleading statement in the press release and to instead emphasize the very troubling findings of her agency's report.