State
Groups want broad EPA probe of tainted Texas water
Posted: Feb 11, 2013 3:05 PM
Updated: Feb 11, 2013 3:06 PM
HOUSTON (AP) More than 80 environmental groups are demanding a broad investigation into whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency behaved improperly when it abruptly dropped enforcement actions against a gas driller it had accused of contaminating water in Texas.
The 86 groups demand in a letter Monday to the EPA's inspector general, Arthur Elkins, that he widen an existing investigation into the agency's actions. They cite an Associated Press report indicating the agency had scientific evidence linking Range Resources' drilling operations to water contamination in a town west of Fort worth.
Range Resources has said the EPA dropped its demands that the company provide affected families with clean water and locate the source of the contamination after the company threatened not to cooperate with a high-profile national study into hydraulic fracturing.
