Nicholas Kusnetz

A congressional report released Saturday confirmed details about what many already knew was happening: gas drillers have injected millions of gallons of fluids containing toxic or carcinogenic chemicals into the ground in recent years.

Hundreds of thousands of the roughly 12 million oil and gas wells drilled across the U.S. were simply abandoned and forgotten after their use was exhausted, often leaving no records of their existence.

A new report by the U.S. Forest Service offers one of the most detailed accounts yet of how natural gas drilling can affect a forest.

As Marcellus Shale gas-drilling operations proliferated over the last couple of years, most of the hundreds of millions of gallons of briny wastewater they produced was eventually dumped into the state's rivers. Much of the rest is unaccounted for.

If new rules work, they will result in the most detailed disclosure yet of fluids used in the controversial drilling techniques associated with natural gas shales.

One of the largest gas drillers in the Marcellus Shale says it will disclose the volume, concentration and purpose of hazardous chemicals it uses in its Pennsylvania wells.

Agriculture officials have quarantined 28 beef cattle after wastewater from a nearby gas well leaked into a field.