e136.
In 2010 the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a study of the environmental impact of fracking and a review of the exemption from identifying the chemicals involved: Tom Doggett (2010), “EPA Begins Study on Shale Gas Drilling”, 2010, available at http://tinyurl.com/p5ou9nd . For the suggestion that methane could be the precursor of more chemical contamination to come, see Judith Jordan (representing Garfield County, Colorado), cited in Lustgarten, “Officials in Three States Pin Water Woes on Gas Drilling”, April 26 2009. Concern has also been expressed about the implications of fracturing the geological foundations of large areas, especially those already unstable or prone to earthquakes, but no firm conclusions have yet been drawn. See, e.g., Courtney Spradlin, “Geologists deny fracking’s influence in area earthquakes”, 12 November 2010, available at http://tinyurl.com/ovyos4y .