U.S. probe of natgas drilling sparks hot debate

* EPA investigates safety concerns of natural gas industry

* Pennsylvania's booming Marcellus Shale sparks hot debate

By Jon Hurdle

CANONSBURG, Pennsylvania, July 23 (Reuters) - Residents from Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and West Virginia are urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to address safety concerns by regulating the booming natural gas industry.

Some 1,200 people attended a public meeting near Pittsburgh on Thursday evening as part of an EPA probe into a drilling technique known as fracking. EPA is conducting a two-year study into the safety of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, in which drillers force chemicals mixed with sand and water underground at high pressure to open gas-bearing fissures in the rock.

Supporters say drilling is safe and has revived rural towns during the U.S. economic slowdown. Critics accuse natural gas companies of covert dumping of waste water that could threaten human health and has already caused stillborn and deformed cattle.

"There has never been a single case of groundwater contamination caused by fracturing," Kathryn Klaber, chief executive of the industry's Marcellus Shale Coalition, told the five-hour meeting.

But critics from New York State, West Virginia, and Ohio joined those from southwest Pennsylvania who claimed fracking is causing irreversible damage to their water. They urged the EPA to take control of an industry that currently is regulated by states rather than by the federal government.

The Marcellus Shale rock formations -- which stretch from New York State through Pennsylvania to West Virginia -- has been among the most active U.S. drilling sites. Dozens of companies are eager to tap the field that could hold enough natural gas to supply the United States for a decade.

Jodi Borello, one of about 140 people who stood in line to give a two-minute speech at the EPA meeting, accused some gas drillers of dumping waste water in waterways and rural roads.

"Contaminated frack water is routinely being dumped into creeks," she said. "There is no-one to call, and by the time someone gets there, the actor is gone. Frack trucks have been seen driving without license plates."

SAFETY VS PROFITS

Terry Greenwood, a farmer in Greene County, southwest Pennsylvania, blamed frack water for still births and deformities in 10 of his cattle.

The EPA study was ordered by Congress amid growing demands for tougher regulation of shale gas and is due to report in 2012. It will try to identify fracking chemicals, which some companies have refused to publicly disclose, citing proprietary concerns and a 2005 exemption from a federal clean water law.

Public meetings for the EPA study have also been held in Texas and Colorado.

Using up to 10 case studies from across the United States, the inquiry will also examine construction standards of gas wells and look at how energy companies dispose of or recycle waste water. Some critics claim that faulty concrete casings could allow fracking chemicals to seep into the water supply.

Among the supporters are gas industry employees and local business people such as Paul Battista, who supplies the local gas industry with equipment from pipe filters to tire chains for trucks. He said his business has doubled in the last year.

But Gregory Wrightstone of the nonprofit Pennsylvania Coalition for Responsible Government, criticized "virulent anti-Marcellus Shale hysteria" driven by "unfounded allegations" and "overblown" fears of environmental disaster.

Wrightstone said that some 48,000 gas wells were fracked in Pennsylvania over several decades with no ill-effects before the Marcellus development boom.

"Wouldn't a rational individual conclude that (water) well contamination is very unlikely?" he said.

But William Hughes of Wetzel County, West Virginia, said it doesn't matter how many regulations are place on the industry. "Productivity always trumps maintenance," Hughes said. "We all cut corners, and gas drillers are no different." (Editing by Michelle Nichols and David Gregorio)