Another non-industry sponsored study has found that hydro-fracking contaminates the water supply.
Methane leaks are contaminating drinking water near shale gas drilling sites in the northeastern United States, scientists said Tuesday, placing a further question mark over this fast-growing energy source.
Scientists tested water samples taken from 68 private wells in five counties in Pennsylvania and New York to explore accusations that “hydro-fracking” — a contested technique to extract shale gas — has contaminated groundwater.
Methane was found in 85 percent of the samples, and at sites within a kilometer (0.6 mile) of active hydraulic-fracturing operations, levels were 17 times higher than in wells far from such operations, said the study by researchers at Duke University in North Carolina.
“In these rural areas, almost everybody has a well,” lead author Stephen Osborn told AFP. “They are using it for drinking, for their livestock, for agriculture.”
No one knows what happens when you drink a bunch of methane because no one bothered to study it before they started fracking the hell out of the Marcellus Shale.
We live in Pennsylvania, and we have well-water. Fortunately, I hope, we live far enough east of the shale that our drinking water is probably safe. But it’s not about me. It’s about the wisdom of releasing climate-warming methane into the atmosphere and water supply. I am aware that almost all energy sources come with problems, and that “clean” energy sources are insufficient for our needs. But, at a minimum, more study needs to be done on hydro-fracking and its potential consequences on the environment.
I’m sure they will get around to it — after its too late to stop.
Simple conservation knocked oil down $5 a barrel today. We used less gas as prices went up and the bubble burst. We need to encourage conservation while we sort out where we get our energy. What combination of solar, wind, coal, hydro, oil and gas. Nuclear 20% of our electricity production is nuclear so its not going away. We should not give up trying to make it safe or an acceptable level of safe. We need the electricity. Although, seeing the 1985 type control room in the Japanese plant freaked me out. Greed is destroying the nuclear industry.
I thought the gas deposits where a godsend until the fracking issues. Nothing is simple except conservation.
You may not have to worry about your water, but another aspect of large-scale drilling operations like what’s primed for the Marcellus shale play is air pollution. Ergo, we’re back to the water.
Also, what’s already happening is the offsite dumping of frack waste; while NYS is under a moratorium re: hydrofracking, it turns out that we’re still getting toxic waste from out of state sites. Again, back to the water.
My feeling is that there’s no one within conceivable trucking distance from any frack site who can relax, regarding the safety of their water. I’ll say it again: there is no accountability regarding this industry. Think about what that actually means.
Worst of all, the gas extracted by virtue of this lawless process may not even stay in the domestic market ..
I live in Potter County, PA. A mile from a major gas development field known as State Game Lands 59 or Fisk Hollow.
They drilled and fracked this site about 8 months ago, but the connecting pipeline that would bring the produced gas to the main distribution line was not built yet so they capped most of the wells.
At the time they capped, well head pressure was a healthy 600PSI. I know this, because I know a welltender and a pipe fitter who worked the gas field up there.
Today, that well head pressure stands at a feeble 200PSI.
Which implies that the owners of the mineral rights may very well have lost a significant portion of their inventory.
They don’t know what happened to the well head pressure, but they’ve walked away from Fisk Hollow and have moved on to Marrienville, PA. Which isn’t a good sign.
After pressurizing the shale, did all that frack fluid leak down into the underlying strata? Or did all that shale gas leach out the sides of the hills through unseen cracks and fissures and the numerous, unmapped, abandoned and unplugged wells that are all over Potter County, PA.
If the latter, that means MILLIONS of cubic feet of methane have leached to the atmosphere. Methane, the worst of all greenhouse gasses.
We KNOW from this study that once the shale is pressurized, the gas migrates to nearby shallow water wells and into basements and such (2 houses and an out building have exploded in Bradford, PA).
But the 800lb gorilla in that room, that no one is talking about is this, if it is known to migrate to shallow closed systems like water wells, then damn sure, that shit, the worst of all known greenhouse gasses, is leaching to the atmosphere too. In great quantity.
And they know this.
Thank you for this information!
Frankly, the longer I look, the deeper the insanity appears.