EPA Seeking Citizen Watchdogs

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established a new telephone hotline [1] for citizens to report suspicious or unusual activities involving natural gas drilling. The "Eyes on Drilling Tipline" allows anyone to report activities such as dumping and other "illegal or suspicious hauling and/or disposal activities." Vigilant citizens can call the new toll-free number, 1-877-919-4EPA, or email eyesondrilling@epa.gov [2].

The EPA encourages citizens to send photos and video of the activities if they have them. So if you or someone you know lives near a gas drilling operation – get your cameras, video recorders, and pen and paper and help the government keep tabs on this egregiously poorly regulated industry.

According to the press release [3] announcing the new tipline, EPA is concerned about the huge expansion of natural gas drilling operations in recent years, and especially drilling in the Marcellus Shale, a huge geologic formation underneath several northeast states, including New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Technical developments in a procedure known as hydraulic fracturing have made these previously inaccessible gas deposits economical to extract in recent years. EPA warns, "Chemicals used in the process are often stored on-site. Spills can occur when utilizing these chemicals or when transporting or storing wastewater, which can result in the contamination of surface water or ground water, which is used for many purposes including drinking water.

The agency is right to be concerned about natural gas drilling, as this factsheet [4] from the watchdog group Oil & Gas Accountability Project [5] makes clear.

Drilling operations pose a threat to environmental and public health in numerous ways. In addition to the threat of spills mentioned by EPA, emissions from toxic waste and burning colossal amounts of diesel fuel pollute the air, drinking water could be threatened by underground leaks of methane and toxic chemicals, and other possible harms.

A loophole in the 2005 Energy Policy Act (known as the Halliburton loophole) reduced EPA's already limited authority to regulate the natural gas drilling industry, and the agency has been able to eke out only a tiny amount of oversight [6]. A bill [7] now creeping through Congress would close the Halliburton loophole and force drillers to disclose to the public what toxic chemicals they are using and threatening water supplies with.

The EPA "wants to get a better understanding of what people are experiencing and observing as a result of these drilling activities. The information collected may also be useful in investigating industry practices."