Author: Jovana Ruzicic
Website: http://www.enviroblog.org/2009/03/lawless-drilling-boom.html…
Special to Enviroblog by Don Carr, EWG Press Secretary

Oil and gas drillers in the American West are exempt from most environmental safeguards.
You could imagine that companies engaging in hydraulic fracturing, the process by which highly toxic chemical are injected into the ground to force out natural gas, would be regulated by the Clean Water Act, at least, since ground water sources are sometimes near drilling sites.
But in fact, oil and gas drilling are exempt from the landmark 1972 statute
You might think that if a person came into contact with extremely hazardous drilling chemicals, and the person’s life was at stake, emergency response personnel would know what to do.
That’s not the case either.
In Colorado, a nurse nearly died after she touched the chemical-soaked clothing of a sick drilling worker. The drilling company refused to tell her physician exactly what she had encountered.
The exact composition of hydraulic fracturing, or fracing,…
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