Fracking May Taint Pennsylvania Water Says Science

The authoritative National Academy of Sciences published in their July Proceedings the conclusion that the closer a residential drinking water well is to a fracking well, the more likely the drinking water is contaminated with methane. A chemical engineer from Duke University, Robert Jackson looked at 141 shallow residential wells and found methane in 115 of them. For wells less than one mile from a fracking well, the concentration of methane is six times higher than those farther from fracking operations. Isotopes and traces of ethane detected indicate the source of the methane is not biological, but from the Marcellus Shale formation deep underground. Over forty thousand gas wells have been drilled into the shale to recover natural gas since 2000. If the casing of a fracking well leaks, methane can escape into natural pathways to contaminate shallower drinking water wells. Oil and gas companies claim that gas rises naturally from deep formations making a determination of the source of contamination problematic. But some scientists think chemical analysis can differentiate between methane that has naturally seeped upward over time and methane that has taken a short cut via leaking fracking wells. More analysis is needed to make this determination.