Frack-free zones 'would protect water and wildlife'

The establishment of "frack-free zones" is required in the UK to protect the countryside from shale gas extraction and limit the risk of polluting rivers and fragmenting many of the country's most precious wildlife sites, a major study suggests.

A report commissioned by the National Trust, the RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts, Angling Trust, Salmon and Trout Association and Wildlife and Wetland Trust - which together have more than six million members - argues that action needs to be taken immediately.

The study claims that more than 500 sites designated by the government as important to wildlife are currently located within zones that are under licence to fracking companies, while a further 2,500 could be affected in the next round of licensing.

Much controversy has surrounded the process of fracking - also known as hydraulic fracturing - which involves pumping sand, chemicals and water underground to extract shale gas trapped in rocks.

A key argument from detractors is that little is known about the full effects of fracking on underground or surface waters, and this is a key focus of the new study, with the six organisations calling for preventative measures to be taken before any more work begins.

"Contamination of ground and water can occur as a result of contaminants percolating up from the fractured shale seam into an aquifer, as well as leakages of methane as a result of well failure," the report explains.

"In the US, methane contamination linked to shale gas extraction has been found in aquifers. Once contamination of groundwater has occurred. The clean up is difficult and may take many years."

The study, which was peer-reviewed by the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology, notes that several sources of water pollution in the UK are already detrimental to wildlife and people and says shale gas extraction will likely "add to the problem".

In particular, it says that commercial-scale fracking would threaten wildlife and the water environment in a "range of ways", with major government decisions now needing to be made to determine whether commercial extraction of shale gas will take place in the UK, how it will happen, and on what scale.

The study concludes: "We are calling for all protected wildlife areas, nature reserves and national parks to be frack-free zones, for full environmental assessments to be carried out for each drilling proposal, and for the shale gas industry to pay the costs of its regulation and any pollution clean-up."