Your article regarding the risks of fracking fails to recognise the reality of how fracking might take place in Scotland and how it is regulated (Fracking poses gender-bending chemical risk to humans, warn top scientists, News, April 24).
There are specific rules in place in the UK to minimise risk, critically that regulators – the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) – will only approve non-hazardous chemicals for use in hydraulic fracturing, and that waste water cannot be stored in open ponds or poured into rivers but rather is kept in enclosed double-skinned tanks on top of areas protected by impermeable membranes. Once collected, the waste must be treated at a licensed centre. Operators are required to disclose all chemicals used in fracking, and their volumes.
Various experts have warned against extrapolating what happens in other countries – with different regulation, geology and mineral ownership, and a report produced for the Scottish Government concluded: “Although there are potential threats to the environment and the individual from unconventional hydrocarbon extraction, there are considerable legislative safeguards to ensure these threats are not realised.”
The Scottish public has the right to take part in the debate whether to continue exploration of oil and gas onshore on the basis of the accurate facts and the acknowledgement that these techniques have been used for many decades in Scotland.
Ken Cronin
Chief Executive, United Kingdom Onshore Oil and Gas
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