Last year, when the EPA said that five years of study in Wyoming fracking had led them to believe that while there were concerns about drinking water contamination, there was nothing to prove that there was a systematic drinking water problem, it was very quickly pointed out that the EPA’s five-year study was woefully lacking. It turned out that scientists began very quickly discovering that Wyoming fracking did indeed show signs of having a systematically significant impact on drinking water. Now a new study has just been published that, at the every least, screams for further and more extensive research to be pursued.
The research, published last week, brought together for the first time air monitoring at oil and gas sites with what's called biomonitoring—the tracking of what's in human tissues or fluids. The results indicate harmful compounds were emitted from certain gas sites near the fracking town of Pavillion, Wyoming. Some of those chemicals, such as benzene and toluene, were then found in the air at surrounding farms and the analysis found traces in the urine of participants in the study.
The study was small (11 participants) and not peer-reviewed, but the findings suggest gas emissions were probably making their way into people's bodies, said study author Sharyle Patton, director of the California-based Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Center.
As the second paragraph makes clear, this study is not peer-reviewed, and the sample size is far too small to draw meaningful conclusions as whether or not fracking itself is the problem. However, in the absence of serious government-funded research being done, this small bit of evidence builds the case for larger, systematic looks into the safety of business as usual practices in Wyoming.
A big reason this novel study was even attempted is because the citizens of Pavillion "were very concerned about their health and the results of being exposed to what the production sites were releasing," said Wilma Subra, an environmental health expert who helped with the study.
Officials at Wyoming's Department of Environmental Quality andDepartment of Health told InsideClimate News they are reviewing the study and would not comment until they do.
Pavillion, Wyoming has a population of around 240 people. History is filled with small towns serving as canaries in the coal mines of big business’s greed. One day we might be able to distinguish between what is more important, people or money, but until then we need to get these studies done in the hopes of powering bigger and more definitive science on the matter.