Drilling industry responds to injection well concerns

CLEVELAND - The Marcellus Shale drilling industry insists that ground water has neer been affected by drilling for natural gas in Pennsylvania and that concerns over chemical by-products used in the process are unfounded.

The response came after NewsChannel5 posted a story on newsnet5.com about chemical waste being dumped in Ohio .

Travis Windle, a spokesperson for the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates the entire injection well process under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Windle said that hydraulic fracturing has never been impacted groundwater, according to Penyslvania's Department of Environmental Protection.

Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger said, "It's important to be clear about where the problems have been. We have not had a single case of these fracking fluids coming back to the groundwater."

Windle also cited engineering experts from the both the Univeristy of Pittsburg and West Virginia University as confirming that fracturing has never impacted groundwater.

As far as chemcials used in the drilling process, Windle said only a fraction of chemicals cited by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection are used in the drilling process.

Windle also said the industry has fully complied with requests the by U.S. Department of Environmental Protection to turn over a list of all chemicals used in the drilling process.

The Marcellus Shale industry said it is using new technology as well to reduce the need for underground injection wells.