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EPA Okays More Permits Allowing Fracking Waste Water On Reservation

An environmental watchdog group says the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest permits violate the Clean Water Act by allowing thousands of gallons of fracking fluids to be released onto Wind River Reservation lands. The group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility or PEER, say the permits were originally issued in the 1970’s to provide drinking water for livestock and wildlife in the arid West. Director Jeffrey Ruch says, since then, fracking fluid ingredients have become much more complex.

“We know of no one who advises that anyone drink fracking fluids,” he says. “And so the idea that they’re going to be produced to be consumed by animals strikes us as questionable. And we’re concerned that EPA isn’t doing what the state of Wyoming is doing, which is requiring the operators to list the chemicals.”

He says as many as 600 chemicals are used to extract gas and oil from underground rock.

We know of no one who advises that anyone drink fracking fluids

“Our principle complaint is that EPA in their surface discharge permit aren’t looking at the things that are being discharged,” Rook says. “As a matter of fact, the permits don’t even list the chemicals they expect to be released into reservation waters.”

Ruch says states like Wyoming require a list of ingredients in fracking waste water and the EPA should too.

Melodie Edwards is the host and producer of WPM's award-winning podcast The Modern West. Her Ghost Town(ing) series looks at rural despair and resilience through the lens of her hometown of Walden, Colorado. She has been a radio reporter at WPM since 2013, covering topics from wildlife to Native American issues to agriculture.
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