Report: fracking does raise environmental concerns
Northern News Services
Published Monday, May 5, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The use of hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, could cause significant environmental impacts, including the contamination of groundwater from leaky wells, according to a new study commissioned by Environment Canada.
Although the paper, titled Environmental Impacts of Shale Gas Extraction in Canada, looks at the impacts of extracting natural gas through fracking, it's still relevant to the Sahtu, where horizontal wells could be fracked to extract shale oil.
"If you're talking about hydraulic fracturing in shale beds, what we found applies," Dr. John Cherry, chair of the expert panel that produced the paper and groundwater contamination researcher with the University of Guelph in Ontario, told News/North.
The main hurdle for the group of 14 experts put together by the Council of Canadian Academies was a significant absence of scientific data on the use of fracking and its environmental impacts.
"That was a big problem when we got going two years ago. When we looked into the literature, almost all of it was provided by the oil and gas industry and that doesn't mean it's wrong - it just means that it's coming from one point of view," said Cherry.
With the ongoing debate about the use of fracking and its impacts on the environment and human health, Cherry said it is time for the federal government to "step up in a big way" and provide the science needed to answer nagging questions such as "does fracking fluid contaminate ground water?"
"Government should be able to answer their concerns with good information," he said, adding that this is a job for the federal government because "it's not efficient to let every province re-invent the wheel."
Not only would unbiased scientific information soothe public unrest, it would give industry the certainty it wants, said Cherry.
"In some cases, government is too timid to impose the science and the monitoring. More timid than industry would like them to be," he said.
"If you're a big oil and gas company and you want to behave responsibly, it's in your best interest to have appropriate science-based regulations."
