From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Drinking Water Safety and Oil and Gas Production Description: Audio interview by GAO staff with Alfredo Gomez, Director, Natural Resources and Environment Related GAO Work: GAO-16-281: Drinking Water: EPA Needs to Collect Information and Consistently Conduct Activities to Protect Underground Sources of Drinking Water Released: March 2016 [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It's March 2016. Fracking has helped increase domestic oil and gas production. But it, along with other drilling methods, also produces wastewater, which is disposed of deep underground. A team led by Alfredo Gomez, a director in GAO's Natural Resources and Environment team, reviewed federal efforts to keep this wastewater from contaminating sources of drinking water. GAO's Tim Walker sat down with Alfredo to talk about what they found. [ Tim Walker: ] Water contamination is a serious and alarming issue as we have seen play out in the media in recent months. Do Americans have another reason to worry about their water? [ Alfredo Gomez: ] At this point, we don't really know the answer to that question. Our concern is that the Environmental Protection Agency, which has the oversight responsibility, does not have the information that it needs, nor does it conduct the activities to ensure that groundwater is being protected. [ Tim Walker: ] Before we get into this, I want to back up a little bit. How could wastewater from oil and gas exploration contaminate drinking water in the first place? [ Alfredo Gomez: ] The wastewater is generally disposed of by injecting it deep into the underground. And this is done through injection wells. These injection wells are drilled thousands of feet below the Earth's surface, generally below these water aquifers. And one way that drinking water sources can be contaminated is if the metal casings and the cement in the wells leak. [ Tim Walker: ] And what exactly is in the wastewater? [ Alfredo Gomez: ] The wastewater from oil and gas production activities contains various chemicals such as salts, hydrocarbons such as oil and grease, metals, and naturally-occurring radioactive materials. [ Tim Walker: ] Do we know anything about how it could affect people's health? [ Alfredo Gomez: ] Depending on what's in the drinking water, it can potentially cause headaches, nausea, and long-term illness such as high blood pressure and cancer. [ Tim Walker: ] And in the report, I read that there are over 170,000 of these wells. What did you learn about the government's oversight of them? [ Alfredo Gomez: ] So, we have found that while EPA's program requires safeguards from the wells, EPA does not get the information it needs, nor does it conduct activities that are necessary to ensure the groundwater is being protected. For example, the information that EPA collects on inspections is not specific to individual wells. So you don't know the type of inspection that's being conducted nor the results of those inspections. So, all in all, the information cannot be used to verify states are meeting their inspection goals. [ Tim Walker: ] What else did you find? [ Alfredo Gomez: ] Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, aquifers need to be exempted if wastewater is to be injected into them. And we found that EPA does not have documentation to locate aquifers that have been exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act. EPA has been working to develop a database, but it's not complete. And this is important because in 2014, California discovered that since the 1980s, it had been injecting wastewater into 11 aquifers that had not been exempt from protection under the Safe Drinking Water Act and could have been used as drinking water sources. If EPA had maintained an updated database and had also conducted on-site investigations of California's program, it may have discovered this mistake earlier. We also found that EPA had not conducted a workforce analysis to determine the people and the resources that it needs to effectively oversee state programs. [ Tim Walker: ] So, it sounds like a lot of the issue here is a lack of information. What needs to be done to start protecting our drinking water better? [ Alfredo Gomez: ] So we have made several recommendations to EPA to fix the program. For example, we recommended that EPA require and collect data on inspections that are specific to individual wells. We would also like to see EPA complete a database that lists the aquifers that are exempt. And this is important because EPA should have the information to ensure that wastewater is not injected into the wrong places. We also would like EPA to conduct a workforce analysis to identify the people and the resources it needs to carry out its oversight responsibilities. [ Tim Walker: ] So, when it comes to wastewater from oil and gas production and the safety of underground drinking water sources, what's the bottom line of your report? [ Alfredo Gomez: ] As I noted earlier, EPA does not get the information that it needs nor does it conduct the activities that are necessary to ensure that our sources of drinking water are safe. And we have made several recommendations to address those challenges. 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