WASHINGTON, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – The US government has failed to inspect thousands of oil and gas wells which potentially risk contaminating groundwater and wreaking other environmental damage, according to a report of congressional investigators obtained by The Associated Press.
The report, cited by AP before its public release, stresses “substantial gaps in oversight” by the agency managing oil and gas development on federal and Indian lands.
According to the report, the Bureau of Land Management did not coordinate effectively with state regulators in New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Utah.
US investigators said weak control by the bureau resulted from policies “based on outdated science and from incomplete monitoring data.”
The BLM failed to inspect more than 2,100 of the 3,702 wells that it had specified as “high priority” and drilled between 2009 and 2012. The agency highlighted the need to protect against possible water contamination and other environmental safety issues.
The agency had yet to indicate whether another 1,784 wells were high priority or not.
The findings come amid an energy boom in the United States and the increasing use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Fracking has gained wide global attention as a method of oil and gas extraction. Its benefits are controversial, since the process involves injecting liquids with carcinogenic chemicals into rock formations. The chemicals stay in the ground and can pollute soil and groundwater, whereas the water used in extraction can later be treated, but its subsequent safety has not been proven.
