"Fracking" in Idaho

What is Fracking?

The recent discovery of natural gas in western Idaho has many Idahoans wondering if their drinking water wells will be protected from contamination. As gas wells are drilled, eager developers propose to pump tens of thousands of gallons of chemicals into the ground to fracture the rock and stimulate the flow of gas to their wells. 

These companies want to use a process called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking". Fracking is an engineering technique that injects liquid (gel+sand+water+???) into a well at high pressure to create cracks in deep rock. These cracks allow natural gas to flow more freely into the well.

Do you find those questions marks alarming? We do, too. The trouble with this type of chemical drilling is that it is exempt from many federal laws that protect public health and the environment and, for many years, the liquid contents injected into the wells have been treated as trade secrets by the industry.

Because we have never had commercially viable natural gas development, Idaho had no regulations for this industry that protect Idaho's drinking water. Over the two years, ICL has worked with state agencies, industry, and other stakeholders to try and craft regulations that would protect Idaho's water and quality of life.

This was by far the most controversial conservation issue in the 2012 legislative session. Many bills were introduced to define how oil and gas will be regulated and produced in Idaho. Despite our best efforts and yours, we were unable to get all the protections and regulations we hoped for.

 The state still needs to address the use of cancer causing chemicals in the fracking process, lack of adequate bonding to protect local communities, use of injection wells for wastewater disposal, questions over water rights, and the ability of local governments to have a say in the siting process. We have a long way to go to improve our oil and gas regulations and ICL will continue to work to improve protections where we can.