Fed govt failed to inspect higher risk oil wells

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By HOPE YEN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government has failed to inspect thousands of oil and gas wells it considers potentially high risks for water contamination and other environmental damage, congressional investigators say.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press before its public release, highlights substantial gaps in oversight by the agency that manages oil and gas development on federal and Indian lands.

Investigators said weak control by the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management resulted from policies based on outdated science and from incomplete monitoring data.

The findings from the Government Accountability Office come amid an energy boom in the country and the increasing use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. That process involves pumping huge volumes of water, sand and chemicals underground to split open rocks to allow oil and gas to flow. It has produced major economic benefits, but also raised fears that the chemicals could spread to water supplies.

FULL story at link.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140511/us-oil-and-gas-federal-oversight-20301013aa.html

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FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2011 file photo, downtown Vernal, Utah is shown. State health officials are pledging to look into claims that stillbirths are on the rise in the Eastern Utah community of Vernal, that is home to a boom in gas and oil development. Activists say a climbing rate of neonatal deaths in the Uinta Basin stems from industrial smog. But researchers and health officials aren{2019}t ready to draw such a link. (AP Photo/The Salt Lake Tribune, Steve Griffin, File)