Friday, February 28, 2014

Environmental Group Seeks Ban on Dumping Fracking Fluid into Ocean

An environmental group filed a legal petition Wednesday calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to stop oil companies from dumping fracking waste water into the Pacific Ocean. The Center for Biological Diversity says the industry has annually discharged over nine billion gallons of water laced with chemicals from offshore oil platforms operating in the Santa Barbara channel. The group wants the federal agency to modify a recently-issued permit that allows hydraulic fracturing operations in federal waters. The boundry for Federal jurisdiction lies three miles offshore. Using oil company data, a recent analysis by the Center of 12 frack jobs in state waters found that at least one-third of chemicals used in fracking operations are suspected to cause ecological harm and impacts on human health. Vic Bedoian reports from Fresno.