A study published yesterday shows that gas drilling could be causing methane to seep into drinking water wells. The Associated Press reports that the Duke University study looked at 68 wells in Pennsylvania and New York - but didn't turn up any hydrofracking chemicals in the wells:
On average, water from wells located less than a mile from drilling sites had 17 times more methane than water tested from wells farther away, according to the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Methane is not known to be toxic, but in high concentrations it can be explosive and cause unconsciousness and even death, since it displaces oxygen needed to breathe. Of the 60 wells tested for methane gas, 14 had levels of methane within or above a hazard range set by the Department of Interior for gas seeping from coal mines, all but one of them near a gas well. In nine wells, concentrations were so high that the government would recommend immediate action to reduce the methane level.
Over at ProPublica Abrahm Lustgarten points out that there could be issues with the study:
In a white paper the group issued along with the journal article, [study author Robert] Jackson and the others acknowledged the uncertainty and called for more research. “Contamination is often stated to be impossible due to the distance between the well and the drinking water,” they wrote. “Although this seems reasonable in most (and possibly all) cases, field and modeling studies should be undertaken to confirm this assumption… Understanding any cases where this assumption is incorrect will be important—when, where, and why they occur—to limit problems with hydraulic fracturing operations.” A hydrogeologist closely affiliated with the drilling industry raised questions about the study. "It's possible, assuming their measurements are accurate, that all they have done is document the natural conditions of the aquifer," said John Conrad, president of Conrad Geosciences in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Conrad spoke with ProPublica at the suggestion of Energy In Depth, a drilling industry advocacy group, but said that he did not work for EID.
The results could help clarify a muddy part of the debate about hydrofracking's effects on the environment, posits Mike Soraghan of Greenwire, writing at the New York Times:
Still, the peer-reviewed study injects some scientific rigor into a debate long characterized by shouting matches and partisan counterclaims. The report says it is the first scientific study of water contamination near shale drilling sites. And researchers plan to go back into the field to test wells where gas was drilled since the samples were taken last year. Some of the wells they sampled far from drilling sites last year now have active production nearby.
You can read the study at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [PDF].
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