Diesel Use in Gas Drilling Cited as Violation of Safe-Water Law - NYTimes.com
As much as northern pipline critics want to point to vast stores of shale gas in North America, it's clear that this practice still has a few hurdles to pass.
In a nutshell, US lawmakers are becoming increasingly concerned with the use of a variety of chemicals used in the "fracking" process that frees gas from otherwise unreachable formations. In many cases, this is of little consequence, but since these chemicals include diesel fuel, toluene, benzine, and other toxins, concern is building that groundwater may be affected.
Congress has already given the EPA a mandate to regulate this kind of drilling, and that will likely happen sooner rather than later.
