Late Wednesday evening, the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) released its long-awaited report Environmental Impacts of Shale Gas Extraction in Canada. In September 2011, former Environment Minister Peter Kent tasked the CCA to address the following questions: What is the state of knowledge of potential environmental impacts from the exploration, extraction, and development of Canada’s shale gas resources, and what is the state of knowledge of associated mitigation options?
If there is a consistent message throughout the report, it is this: we do not know enough about fracking.
The report outlined concerns about well leaks as a “long-recognized yet unresolved problem” and warned, “The greatest threat to groundwater is gas leakage from wells for which even existing best practices cannot assure long-term prevention.” Flowback is also a threat and the panel warns that it is “potentially hazardous waste because it typically contains hydrocarbons including variable amounts of benzene and other aromatics, fracturing chemicals, and potentially hazardous constituents leached from the shale (e.g., salts, metals, metalloids, and natural radioactive constituents).”