Elizabeth Shogren – High Country News – April 14, 2015 – “The Environmental Protection Agency last month issued revised permits for oil companies to dump literally rivers of wastewater—including hydraulic fracturing fluids—on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. When the companies pump oil, water from deep in the earth comes up too. This water can include naturally occurring substances, such as metals, that can pollute streams. It can also include toxic chemicals the companies injected into the wells during hydrofracturing to make the oil flow better. Under these EPA permits, the companies release water onto the dry ground in quantities large enough to create permanent streams. Some flow for long distances on the arid reservation and join the Wind River and Little Wind River. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an environmental watchdog group, plans to appeal the five permits this week, arguing that they are illegal because they do not set limits for many of the chemicals the companies inject in the wells or require adequate monitoring of pollutants. “Against all reason, EPA is refusing to regulate fracking fluids even after they flow back to the surface and are pumped into streams,” Jeff Ruch, PEER’s executive director, said in a statement announcing the appeal. Some of the chemicals the companies have told the EPA they are adding to the wells, or that have been found in the wastewater, include benzene, arsenic and hydrogen sulfide. These chemicals are known to or likely to cause cancer or other serious effects when consumed or breathed in at high enough concentrations. The remote streams of wastewater are used by livestock and wildlife, but not by people as drinking water, creating a regulatory loophole.”
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