Monitoring disappointment at former Fylde fracking site

Fylde environmental campaigners said they are concerned by a lack of long term monitoring of ground water at a fracking site.
Cuardilla's Preese Hall rigCuardilla's Preese Hall rig
Cuardilla's Preese Hall rig

A freedom of information (FOI) request to the Environment Agency has revealed that its staff will not be checking water at Cuadrilla’s former Preese Hall site.

The site was deemed to be the cause of earth tremors which temporarily halted fracking in the UK in 2011.

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Fylde campaigner Peter Roberts said the response was not what he would consider a ‘gold s’tandard” of regulation as the government had promised.

The agency said: “With regards to Preese Hall, there is no intention of further groundwater monitoring.

“We have assessed the information provided by Cuadrilla for the Preese Hall site, and no impact from the drilling of the borehole has been detected, and the one year’s monitoring post abandonment also showed no impact on the ground water.”

The FOI said monitoring had been done between November 26, 2014 and November 2015, on a quarterly basis.

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Peter Roberts said: “It’s just not good enough as deterioration over time is evidenced in mature fracking locations to release untold damage into the environment.”

A spokesman from Frack Free Lancashire said: “It does not bode well for the monitoring of many hundreds of fracking sites across the Fylde which is what Cuadrilla are aiming for in the very near future.”

Since Preese Hall, the Government has said it has increased regulations and monitoring.

A Cuadrilla spokesman said: “We have followed all the rules and regulations for post-abandonment monitoring at our Anna’s Road and Preese Hall sites as set out by the regulatory bodies, and as the Environment Agency states there has been no impact on the ground water following our restoration works.”