Water companies have warned the shale gas industry that the quality of the UK’s drinking water must be protected ‘at all costs’ and must not harm public health.

The calls came at the UK Shale 2013 – Making It Happen conference in London on Wednesday (17 July), as water industry association Water UK, said shale gas exploitation (known as ‘fracking’) could contaminate the water supply with methane gas and harmful chemicals ‘if not carefully planned and carried out’.

In a speech at the conference in London, Water UK’s Policy and Business Adviser, Dr Jim Marshall, said: "Provision of drinking water is a cornerstone of our public health and as such a service that cannot be compromised.

"There are arguments for and against fracking and the water industry is not taking sides. If it goes ahead, we want to ensure corners are not cut and standards compromised, leaving us all counting the cost for years to come.

"We want greater clarity from the shale gas industry on what its needs related to water are really going to be and a true assessment of the impacts. This can be done through much closer working and understanding between water companies and the shale gas industry to tackle the many challenges we collectively face."

Other issues raised by the association included the amount of water used in the fracking process and potential damage to existing water pipes caused by the power of the drilling and fracturing processes.

Water will be ‘safely treated’

Acknowledging concern of the impact of fracking on the UK’s water supply, Lee Petts, Managing Director of waste and environmental management company Remsol (working with Cuadrilla resources in shale gas exploration) told Resource that wastewater from the hydraulic fracturing process would be safely treated in this country.

Petts said: “I’ve seen it said that the waste [from fracking], which is predominantly water containing dissolved metals, salts, and very low concentrations of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (or NORM) will be ‘dumped’ into canals, injected into disposal wells, or simply ‘diluted and dispersed’ somewhere. None of these are true in Cuadrilla’s case.

“Our early research led us to a former United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) site that has been successfully treating effluent containing very low levels of artificially produced radionuclides for over 40 years, using a very simple method.

“We are confident that this method of treatment – proven to be safe over many decades and conducted for us at a carefully selected range of treatment sites that are appropriately permitted to receive and handle the wastewaters in question – will provide an operationally sustainable means of dealing with Cuadrilla’s exploration wastewaters that people can trust.”

Read more about the fracking process or how Remsol will treat wastewater.

Tax breaks for companies exploiting shale gas

The debate around shale gas has been reaching fiver pitch recently, following increasing government support for shale gas exploration in response to the decommissioning of around a fifth of Great Britain’s coal and oil-fired power plants by 2020.

Last month, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced that communities situated near each exploratory hydraulic fracturing well could receive £100,000 and one per cent of revenues from every production site.

The Government has also signalled its intent to incentivise companies in this emerging industry. On Friday (19 July) Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne launched a consultation on a proposed tax regime for shale gas,which could see companies in the shale gas industry have their tax on profits cut from 62 per cent to 30 per cent.

He said: “Shale gas is a resource with huge potential to broaden the UK’s energy mix. We want to create the right conditions for industry to explore and unlock that potential in a way that allows communities to share in the benefits. This new tax regime, which I want to make the most generous for shale in the world, will contribute to that.

“I want Britain to be a leader of the shale gas revolution – because it has the potential to create thousands of jobs and keep energy bills low for millions of people.”

Lush anti-fracking campaign

In related news, fresh cosmetics brand Lush Cosmetics has launched a 10-day anti-fracking campaign in response to the tax breaks for the shale gas industry.

Lush’s ‘Don’t Frack our Future’ campaign, in association with campaign group Frack Off, was launched on Friday (19 July), and claims that ‘a fracked future will pollute our air and poison our water’. It consists of a petition that asks people to pledge support to ‘the resistance to the extraction of unconventional oil and gas’ and those who are working against fracking extraction.

Speaking of the campaign, Head of Global Campaigns at Lush Cosmetics, Tamsin Omond, said: "When we inform our customers that fracking and unconventional gas extraction is coming to the UK and Ireland they freak out.

"The idea that politicians are risking our water supply and our air quality so that energy companies can drill deep beneath our land goes against all common sense. This campaign will educate tens of thousands of people about the threat of fracking to their communities.

"With the success of community-led activism in France, Bulgaria, Australia, the United States and all around the world, I have no doubt that we will keep the frackers from our land.”

Read more about ‘Don’t Frack our Future’.