Following the decision by North Yorkshire county council to approve Third Energy’s fracking application, Yorkshire Water has assured it will keep future applications under review, to make sure there is no risk to the public water supply from such activities.
A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “Although we don’t have control over whether fracking takes place in the region we are a statutory consultee on planning applications for onshore shale gas extraction.
“This means we carefully consider and comment on all shale gas planning applications to make sure that where fracking does occur it has no impact on water supplies. We cannot emphasise enough how absolutely vital it is to us that customers enjoy the safest drinking water at all times.
“Our current assessment is that the risks to water supply from shale gas production are acceptable, provided they are properly identified and lead to appropriate risk mitigation.
“If more companies apply for permission to produce shale gas by hydraulic fracturing, we will review each application on a case by case basis.”
On Monday evening (23 May), after a “long and taxing process”, Third Energy was given the go-ahead by the council to hydraulically fracture an existing well near the village of Kirby Misperton.
This is the first time an application for fracking in the UK has been given council approval since a ban was lifted in 2012.
At the time, Third Energy chief executive Rasik Valand said the approval was “not as a victory but a huge responsibility”, and the firm does not expect to see any activities on site in the near future.
“The purpose of this application is to establish if the gas seen in some samples in this hybrid sandstone shale formation can be made to flow, at what process conditions and for how long,” he said. “If this flows, then we will need to assess how it performs for some months before making any conclusions.
“So now we move on to the next stage of obtaining required approvals.”