Oil and gas companies used PFAS in hydraulic fracturing operations in over 1,200 wells in six states, according to a report published by the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). The report, Fracking with Forever Chemicals, links oil and gas operations in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming, with using PFAS as part of fracking operations, between 2012 and 2020.
In the report, PSR recommends the following actions be taken:
Health assessment. EPA and/or states should evaluate through quantitative analysis whether PFAS and/or PFAS breakdown products associated with oil and gas operations have the capacity to harm human health. All potential pathways of exposure should be examined, including inhalation, ingestion, and dermal contact.
Testing and tracking. EPA and/or states should determine where PFAS and chemicals that may be PFAS have been used in oil and gas operations and where related wastes have been deposited. They should test nearby water, soil, flora, and fauna for PFAS.
Funding and cleanup. Oil and gas and chemical firms should be required to provide adequate funding for environmental testing and evaluation, and should PFAS be found, for cleanup. If water cleanup is impossible, the companies responsible for the use of PFAS should pay for alternative sources of drinking water.
Public disclosure. Echoing recommendations by Pennsylvania’s Attorney General in 2020, governments should require full public disclosure of drilling and fracking chemicals before each oil or gas well can be developed. EPA and/or states should inform communities potentially exposed to PFAS about PFAS contamination risks so that the communities can take actions such as water testing and treatment.
Moratorium on PFAS use for oil and gas extraction. Until testing and investigation are complete, EPA and states should not allow PFAS or chemicals that could break down into PFAS to be manufactured, imported, or used for oil and gas drilling or fracking.
Limits on drilling and fracking. The use of PFAS and of chemicals that break down into PFAS in drilling and fracking should prompt governments to prohibit drilling, fracking, and disposal of related wastewater and solid wastes in areas that are relatively unimpacted by oil and gas pollution, and to increase protections in already impacted regions. When doubt exists as to the existence or danger of contamination, the rule of thumb should be, “First, do no harm.”
Hydraulic fracturing is a well development process for oil and gas typically involving the injection of water, sand, and chemicals under high pressure through the well into a bedrock formation. The process creates new fractures in the rock while also increasing the size, extent, and connectivity of existing fractures. Hydraulic fracturing is a well-stimulation technique commonly used in low-permeability rocks (sandstone, shale, and some coal beds) to increase oil and gas flow to a well from petroleum-bearing rock formations.
Merit Laboratories is a leading national PFAS environmental laboratory, analyzing drinking water, soil, wastewater, groundwater, and other sample matrices, including biosolids and sludge. Analytical methods performed by Merit for PFAS include drinking water by EPA 533, EPA 537.1, and EPA 537 rev. 1.1, biosolids by ASTM D7968-17 with Isotopic Dilution, and soil, wastewater, groundwater, and surface water by ASTM D7979-19 with Isotopic Dilution and ASTM D7968-17.