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BY VICTORIA CRAIG

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A new Environmental Protection Agency draft report issued late this week has potential to continue, or even expand, controversy surrounding the controversial topic of fracking. CBS’ “Early Show” has the groundbreaking details.

“The Environmental Protection Agency reports it now has evidence that the technique called fracking, to extract natural gas, can contaminate drinking water. Fracking chemicals turned up in groundwater beneath a town in Wyoming. The water contains benzene, at 50 times the permitted levels. And a pH level equal to, get this, household bleach.”

Environmentalists praise the EPA’s study saying the results are a long-time coming. The fracking process involves blasting chemical-infused water and sand at high pressures into shale formations which cracks the Earth and releases natural gas. A columnist for Forbes says though he’s a supporter of fracking, this study is concerning.

“...if the findings are true they are pretty damning... The report states that fracking operations were done above [671 meters] at nearby wells, opening up the possibility, however unlikely, that frack chemicals could have intruded into the unlined well and gotten into a water layer.

But not everyone is sold on the EPA’s evidence. As an attorney who represents scientists on matters of environmental policy explains to  CNBC, the EPA’s study is flawed because their assumptions don’t add up.

“They’re claiming what this to be the most commonly-found or detected organic compounds in drinking water -- and they detected it. That’s maybe co-relation, but then they drilled underneath the drinking water into a hydrocarbon reservoir and found, sit down and wait for it, hydrocarbons.”

Furthermore, the Calgary Herald reports the EPA ignored critical findings from the Wyoming Water Development office that refuted the EPA”s findings.

“The WWDO said the EPA data only included two data points, and that more data was required for a ‘complete scientific analysis’. The EPA drilled two monitoring wells, which is where the data came from. But those two wells were drilled into natural gasbearing zones that would have yielded a number of naturally occurring compounds such as methane and benzene.”

The EPA’s findings will begin a 45-day public comment period on the draft report. Although  the EPA is conducting a comprehensive study of the fracking process’ affects on groundwater, the results aren’t expected until later 2012.