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In early May, laborers harvesting cabbage in a field near Bakersfield, California, caught a whiff of an odor. Some suddenly felt nauseated.
A local news station reported that winds blew the pesticide Vulcan — which was being sprayed on a mandarin orchard owned by the produce company Sun Pacific — into Dan Andrews Farms’ cabbage patch.
Vulcan’s active ingredient, chlorpyrifos, has been banned for residential use for more than 15 years. It was scheduled to be off-limits to agriculture this year — until the EPA gave it a reprieve in March. Kern County officials are still confirming whether Sun Pacific’s insecticide contained chlorpyrifos.
More than 50 farmworkers were exposed, and 12 reported symptoms, including vomiting and fainting. One was hospitalized. “Whether it’s nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, seek medical attention immediately,” a Kern County Public Health official warned.
If chlorpyrifos’ presence is confirmed, the EPA may have some explaining to do. The Dow Chemical compound is a known neurotoxin, and several studies connect exposure to it with lower IQ in children and other neurological deficits.
The Scott Pruitt–led agency, however, decided that — and stop me if you’ve heard this one before — the science wasn’t conclusive.
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Obviously, diesel should not be pumped into the ground. It is a filthy fossil fuel that can cause cancer. But about 2 percent of frack jobs include the ingredient in their cocktail of drilling poisons — and that will be allowed to continue, albeit with some weak new oversight from the EPA.
The L.A. Times reports on the EPA’s overdue foray into regulating the use of diesel in fracking:
The Environmental Protection Agency has little authority to regulate fluids used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which involves pumping water laced with chemicals into shale formations to unlock trapped oil and gas. But the agency has been allowed since 2005 to regulate the use of diesel in fracking. Until Tuesday, it had not done so. …
The EPA’s new guidance defines five substances as diesel that require a permit for use in fracking. …
It is not a rule, but guidance on how to interpret the law for federal officials who review and grant fracking permits.
Needless to say, frackers denounced the new guidance, even as they claimed that diesel has been virtually phased out of fracking operations. One drilling group told the Times that the EPA’s move is “a solution in search of a problem.”
Environmentalists were similarly unimpressed — but for very different reasons. They want the use of diesel in frack jobs banned outright. ”Given the potential health and environmental impacts, the use of diesel presents an unacceptable risk and should be prohibited,” Natural Resources Defense Council scientist Briana Mordick wrote on a blog post. “Alternatives that perform the same function as diesel are available.”
Meanwhile, the EPA is working separately to develop regulations for fracking on public lands.
Source
Obama administration issues guidelines on using diesel in fracking, Los Angeles Times
EPA Releases Final Guidance for Fracking with Diesel, NRDC
John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.
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EPA is finally taking at least a small step to protect water supplies from fracking
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