WildEarth Guardians

Monday, January 12, 2015
Guardians Targets Toxic Air Pollution from Fracking

EPA Overdue in Updating Limits on Cancer-causing Benzene, Other Harmful Pollutants at Oil and Gas Facilities Nationwide
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 437-7663

Denver—WildEarth Guardians today put the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on notice that its failure to update limits on toxic air pollution from fracking is violating federal law and putting public health at extreme risk throughout the United States. 

“It’s time to put an end to the oil and gas industry’s air pollution rampage,” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director. “With fracking threatening our communities, the Environmental Protection Agency needs step up and ensure our clean air rules are as strong up to date as possible.”

Under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency is required to review and update air toxics standards for industrial pollution sources every eight years.  In late 2006, the agency adopted standards for smaller oil and gas production facilities.

The rules adopted in 2006, however applied to a subset of sources of toxic air pollution at oil and gas production facilities, and only limited emissions of benzene, not other harmful substances. 

Since the adoption of these standards, new information has revealed the rules fail to limit toxic emissions from a number of sources related to oil and gas production and to ensure that the most up-to-date technologies are used to keep poisonous pollution in check. With an explosion in fracking throughout the U.S., communities are more at risk than ever before.

Although in 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency updated air toxics standards for larger oil and gas production operations, smaller operations, such as fracking at well sites, have been overlooked. Yet throughout the U.S., wells and other smaller operations are collectively the largest source of hazardous air pollution associated with the oil and gas industry.

Estimates indicate more than 100,000 tons of benzene, formaldehyde, other poisonous substances are spewed into the air from oil and gas wells every year.

A coalition of organizations, including WildEarth Guardians, in 2014 called for the Environmental Protection Agency to limit toxic air pollution from oil and gas wells. The agency has yet to grant this petition and to update its air quality standards.

Today’s notice seek to spur the Environmental Protection Agency to follow through with its legal duty to protect people from fracking pollution and limit toxic emissions from oil and gas wells. Otherwise, Guardians intends to file suit in federal court to enforce the Clean Air Act.