Fracking Smoking Gun - Methane Levels In Water Supply
 

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nation...915-story.html


"Natural gas production contaminated the well water of two homes in a Texas subdivision, according to a study published Monday.
The discovery came two years after the Environmental Protection Agency halted its investigation in the Parker County community over concern about costs and legal risks.
In the new study, scientists were trying to determine the origins of high methane levels in drinking water aquifers near gas wells in Pennsylvania and Texas. They found that water in the two homes had changed over nine months, going from containing trace amounts of methane to containing high levels.
The newly identified cases “caught this contamination in the act,” said Robert Jackson, a study coauthor and professor of environmental science at Stanford University.
The discovery challenges a long-standing assertion by the oil and gas industry that the U.S. energy boom has not damaged water supplies.
Other studies have found that water wells near natural gas production are more likely to contain methane. But the industry has contended that the methane found in water wells is naturally occurring and was there all along, before gas production began.

Each of 20 homes tested in Parker County has detectable methane in its well water because of many layers of oil and gas in the ground, the scientists said. Methane that enters homes through drinking water can pose an explosion risk if it accumulates in rooms or other spaces.
Two homes with water containing negligible amounts of methane in 2012 were tested again in August and November 2013, and showed far higher levels, the study said.
Further, the methane in the homes’ water no longer contained the chemical makeup of the naturally occurring trace gas, the study found. Instead, it had the same chemical fingerprint as natural gas deposits far below the aquifer." LATimes

Natural gas in water wells is nothing new.

At least attempt to read past the headline for once.

It's bull shit. Blaming methane on fracking is stupid.

How so?

What in the process of fracking would cause methane? The industry is correct.
It takes a lot of material to create a significant amount of methane.

Afaik, fracking isn't selective on what gasses get released and where it goes. If there was no gas in the water prior to the introduction of a geologically intrusive process and it appears afterward, it's logical to assume cause and effect.

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I heard a discussion of this on NPR. The takeaway was it's not the actual fracking but leaking issues with the wells, something that can be fixed.

Pete

My main issue with Frackers:

Why exemptions from CLEAN DRINKING WATER ACT.

See prior post re cause and effect event chain.

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Cheap energy for all is more important than clean drinking water for some living in and around the fracking fields.

Sure. When you case a well through bed rock, it must be grouted to the rock. Lots of water wells are not cased correctly and can leak.

The thing that I can't figure out is where the methane is coming from & what is producing it. You would expect to find it near the service, not deep in the rock, gravel, or sand aquifer. Maybe there was something growing in an aquifer that has dried up & is now decaying(?) Maybe an illegally drilled well that has some issue? Even if anything like this the cause, the small amount of gas would be vented out very quickly IMO. I'm sure that all the old/dry wells on record were checked to make sure they weren't leaking septic waste or something into a deep & dry aquifer.
I don't buy the "fingerprint" crap either.
Pretty weird. :confused:

An eye opener.

However We in New York do not believe in only nearness to fields.

Our water comes from far, so we put our Governor under pressure. :D

I wouldn't want fracking around my property. I trust the technology to be safe if done right, but I don't trust people to do anything right anymore.

Sorry - they said the gas wells were leaking, and gas wells are known and so fixing them is ok, that it's not the actual fracking. Fracking itself is not causing the water contamination.

Pete

The grouting process is probably the same. I wonder how deep the affected water wells are?

Tongue in cheek?

So why not tell us what chemicals you are injecting in the underground; so the
EPA can do a proper appraisal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...lic_fracturing

Way too many and not all used at the same time. Possibly the contamination is not directly from the fracking process but from waste water leakage from fracking sites leaching into water table.

Me neither, and zero trust in them for full disclosure. My well water has spoiled me for most municipal tap water.

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To frack or not to frack, but NIMBY, that's the dilemma.

As long as it's not a bad tradeoff in the long term. In the meantime there is a lot of "shut up and just cash the checks" going on from bottom to top.

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Aye, there's the rub.

Pete

Fact of life.