| bobabode |
09-15-2014 10:31 PM |
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
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