This peer-reviewed study by Duke University researchers was conducted in Marcellus and Utica Shale gas drilling regions of PA and NY. It was published Monday, 5/9 in PNAS: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US.
Methane contamination of drinking water accompanying gas-well drilling and hydraulic fracturing by Stephen G. Osborn, Avner Vengosh, Nathaniel R. Warner, and Robert B. Jackson
“Our results show evidence for methane contamination of shallow drinking water systems in at least three areas of the region and suggest important environmental risks accompanying shale gas exploration worldwide,”
UPDATE: Gas industry smacks back. 3 posts below the fold, including: researchers’ aggressive campaign; lack of expertise and frighteningly small data set; it was insupportable; that is a stretch; ... don’t qualify as evidence for anything; deliberate effort to imply hydraulic fracturing causes every problem. Just the beginning, sigh.
I wasn't planning to diary this but several hours went by and I thought it was too important to leave unposted. The gas industry will try to attack the researchers, debunk the study or minimize its influence, I'm sure. Linking specific gas mining activities such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to contamination of specific water wells has been elusive and prohibitively expensive for individual homeowners; to date regulators have been all too quick to adopt industry claims that there is no evidence of contamination of even one single well.
Research like this is needed to force regulators and governmental agencies to act to prevent danger to human health and property as well as potential environmental harm and additional greenhouse gas release. This study will be very welcome to people trying to get meaningful regulations put in place before the industry's Marcellus Shale gas rush overwhelms us.
UPDATE: ACTION STEPS in this diary from Sunday on fresh water withdrawal for hydro fracking also contains many links to maps, information and articles. Action needed TODAY in advance of the Delaware River Basin Commission vote tomorrow to allow XTO Energy to take millions of gallons of clean, fresh water for hydrofracking.
News coverage of the new study below the fold.
Industry returns fire:
Durham Bull, Energy in Depth
Of course, neither a lack of expertise nor a frighteningly small data set had the effect of slowing down one bit the researchers’ aggressive campaign to generate as many hits as they could in the media – up to and including the placement of an op-ed by Duke’s Rob Jackson in this morning’s Philadelphia Inquirer.
In truth, it’s a campaign that started late last week, with a reporter in Quebec (of all places) sending us a media advisory from Mr. Jackson trumpeting the release of a new paper that “attributes contamination to gas extraction technologies.” As mentioned, the report itself doesn’t actually say that – in fact, Jackson says the exact opposite in an interview with Bloomberg TV today. But as it turns out, putting out a paper calling for updated state well-casing standards isn’t quite as sexy as putting out a paper calling for an EPA take-over of the fracturing process itself, is it?
Phila Daily News
John Conrad, an industry consultant who is senior hydrologist and president of Conrad Geoscience Corp. in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said that because the researchers also found methane in areas where no drilling is occurring, it was insupportable to say the methane was in the water due to hydrofracking.
"Based on the limited amount of data they have, that is a stretch," he said. "Not that it's not worth studying. But much more data is needed."
Jackson said that close to natural gas sites, many wells - although not all - had methane, while only rarely did a well outside of a drilling area have methane.
"All we've done is ask if you're more likely to have a problem if you live near a gas well. The answer is yes."
EID Marcellus.org
Where I come from, “less likely” and “might be possible” don’t qualify as evidence for anything. I’d be laughed off the stand if I offered that kind of expert witness testimony in court.
Moreover, the study says “We found no evidence for contamination of drinking-water samples with deep saline brines or fracturing fluids.” That didn’t make the headline, of course, and the deliberate effort to imply hydraulic fracturing causes every problem by inserting the term “fracking” into every discussion, continues; as if methane migration and setting faucets on fire hadn’t been issues in the Northern Tier for decades before drilling was ever considered.
Press coverage of the PNAS study includes:
Forbes
The study provides the first systematic evidence of methane contamination of private drinking water supplies in areas where shale gas extraction is occurring.
A team of researchers at Duke University led by Robert Jackson, an environmental chemist, and Stephen Osborn, a post-doctoral fellow, analyzed groundwater samples from more than 60 private wells in Pennsylvania and upstate New York. The findings:
[M]ethane concentrations were found to be 17‐times higher on average in areas with active drilling and extraction than in non‐active areas, with some drinking‐water wells having concentrations of methane well above the “immediate action” hazard level.
ProPublica
The peer-reviewed study [1], published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, stands to shape the contentious debate [2] over whether drilling is safe and begins to fill an information gap that has made it difficult for lawmakers and the public to understand the risks [3].
The research was conducted by four scientists at Duke University. They found that levels of flammable methane gas in drinking water wells increased to dangerous levels when those water supplies were close to natural gas wells. They also found that the type of gas detected at high levels in the water was the same type of gas that energy companies were extracting from thousands of feet underground, strongly implying that the gas may be seeping underground through natural or manmade faults and fractures, or coming from cracks in the well structure itself.
...
“We certainly didn’t expect to see such a strong relationship between the concentration of methane in water and the nearest gas wells. That was a real surprise,” said Robert Jackson, a biology professor at Duke and one of the report’s authors.
Methane contamination of drinking water wells has been a common complaint among people living in gas drilling areas across the country. A 2009 investigation by ProPublica [4] revealed that methane contamination from drilling was widespread, including in Colorado [5], Ohio and Pennsylvania [6]. In several cases [7], homes blew up after gas seeped into their basements or water supplies. In Pennsylvania a 2004 accident killed three people, including a baby.
In Dimock, Pa. [4], where part of the Duke study was performed, some residents’ water wells exploded or their water could be lit on fire. In at least a dozen cases in Colorado, ProPublica’s investigation found, methane had infiltrated drinking water supplies that residents said were clean until hydraulic fracturing was performed nearby.
The drilling industry and some state regulators described some of these cases as “anecdotal” and said they were either unconnected to drilling activity or were an isolated problem. But the consistency of the Duke findings raises questions about how unusual and widespread such cases of methane contamination may be.
“It suggests that at least in the region we looked, this is a more general problem than people expected,” Jackson told ProPublica.
NY Times Dot Earthblog
Researchers from Duke University say they have found a clear link between gas drilling in Pennsylvania and Upstate New York and high levels of flammable methane in drinking water — a situation that became a prominent talking point in the drilling debate after flaming faucets were featured in the documentary “Gasland.”
The summary of their paper, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says it all:
"In aquifers overlying the Marcellus and Utica shale formations of northeastern Pennsylvania and upstate New York, we document systematic evidence for methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale-gas extraction."
The study did not find evidence of fracking chemicals in wells tested.
Wall Street Journal
Natural-gas drilling appears to be allowing potentially explosive methane gas to seep into some drinking-water wells in Pennsylvania and New York, according to a study by scientists from Duke University.
The Duke researchers tested 60 private water wells in Pennsylvania and New York, and found that those near gas wells had methane levels that were 17 times as high as those in non-drilling areas. While not considered a toxin, methane bubbling out of the water can build up and cause fires or explosions.
The researchers didn't find any evidence that chemicals used in the drilling process were leeching into water supplies, as some environmentalists and other critics of the drilling have contended.
The natural-gas industry immediately took issue with the size and methodology of the study, which is one of the first independent investigations into the effects of gas extraction on drinking water, and is sure to fuel the growing controversy over drilling for gas.
Much of that controversy has focused on hydraulic fracturing, the practice of injecting millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals into the ground to break up gas-bearing rocks. The technique has allowed companies to tap vast new gas reserves across the nation.
The natural-gas industry says that fracturing is safe, and that properly drilled wells don't leak either gas or chemicals. Environmentalists and industry groups have produced dueling studies assessing the risks of drilling on water supplies.
"There are a lot of anecdotes and a lot of un-peer-reviewed white papers, but very little hard research," said Robert B. Jackson, a Duke professor of biology and one of the study's authors.
USA Today
A controversial form of drilling for natural gas from shale rock appears to be contaminating groundwater wells with methane in northeastern Pennsylvania and Upstate New York, according to a Duke University study.
Researchers tested 60 wells last year for methane and found that 13 of the 26 wells within a kilometer of "hydrofracking" sites had elevated methane levels, some to the point where the water could catch fire. Such levels were found in only one of the 34 wells beyond a kilometer of such drilling, according to study co-author Robert Jackson.
"I was extremely surprised. We did not expect to find so many houses with high methane concentrations near gas wells," said Jackson, an environmental science professor at Duke University. "It's pretty hard to explain away."
Updated by Catskill Julie at Tue May 10, 2011 at 09:37 AM EDT
Wow, rec list. Thank you for your attention to this important issue. This is a hopeful development.