Hunting and Fishing Group Backs Bill to Protect Water

Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development calls on oil and gas industry to disclose chemicals they use

WASHINGTON (June 9, 2009 ) – Sportsmen applauded legislation introduced today to regulate a controversial energy industry drilling practice suspected of contaminating ground water.

The bill, sponsored by Reps. Diana DeGette, D-Colo. and Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., would require the energy industry to reveal the chemical contents of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” fluids used to fill fissures in rock formations and force oil or natural gas from wells.

The legislation would end energy industry exemptions under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and help protect drinking water – on the surface and underground – that  humans and wildlife depend on.

“If they won’t tell us what chemicals they’re putting in our water, it makes you wonder if they have something to hide,” said Brad Powell, energy policy director for Trout Unlimited. Trout Unlimited is a partner in Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development with the National Wildlife Federation, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and scores of other organizations, businesses and individual hunters and anglers nationwide.

“We’re already seeing the impacts on people from tainted groundwater in the gas fields of Colorado and Wyoming,” Powell said. “There’s no telling how the industry’s chemicals are affecting our fish and game populations.

“The Safe Drinking Water Act is one of our country’s bedrock environmental laws and it was enacted to protect one of our fundamental natural resources,” Powell said. “Requiring the energy industry to meet the same water-quality standards as other businesses isn’t asking too much.”

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Contact: Brad Powell, Trout Unlimited, 928-300-5451, BPowell@tu.org