Grijalva Statement on New EPA Fracking Report: “The Trump Administration Will Answer to the Public If They Ignore This”

Washington, D.C. – Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today hailed the newly released Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report on fracking’s impacts on drinking water sources as “the most thorough review of the issue ever published” and said the Trump administration will have a hard time downplaying or ignoring fracking’s threats to drinking water now that the report is public. Incoming EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in 2014 inaccurately dismissed an agency report on fracking as “politically motivated” and has a well-documented history of using his office to do official favors for the oil and gas industry.

A previously published draft of the report claimed that fracking presented no “widespread, systemic” risks to drinking water. Grijalva in October led 49 Members of Congress to send a letter to the EPA urging officials to take the recommendations of the agency’s own Scientific Advisory Board and remove that claim, which was unsupported in the draft’s text. The final report published today makes clear that drinking water impacts “were identified for all stages of the hydraulic fracturing water cycle.”

“If the Trump administration wants to pretend this problem doesn’t exist, they’re going to run up against more contaminated drinking water, more towns at risk and more unhappy and unhealthy Americans,” Grijalva said. “They can’t say they didn’t know better. If Scott Pruitt pushes this under the rug and treats the oil industry better than he treats the American people, he and his boss will have to answer to the public.”

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