High-Tech Gas Drilling Is Fouling Drinking Water

sciencehabit writes "Drilling for natural gas locked deep in a shale formation — a process known as fracking — has seriously contaminated shallow groundwater supplies beneath far northeastern Pennsylvania with flammable methane. That's the conclusion of a new study, published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The analysis gives few clues, however, to how pervasive such contamination might be across the wide areas of the Northeast United States, Texas, and other states where drilling for shale gas has taken off in recent years."

Comments

Re:but but

[bunratty]

Ah, the good old "nature done it" explanation. At least it's a step up from the "God done it" explanation of intelligent design advocates.

Basic flaw in the study as reported

[Attila Dimedici]

There is a basic problem with the study as reported in both articles. There is no comparison to the amount of methane in the water from wells in the vicinity of gas wells that do not use fracking. This means that the methane may be in the ground water, whether or not fracking is used. Without knowing the amount of methane that was in the water in these wells before the fracking started, or having a comparison to ground water near gas wells where fracking is not used, we are unable to accurately evaluate the level of risk from fracking without knowing the answer to this question.
Have we not learned anything from the various anti-progress "studies" that have been done in the past? This does not mean that this study is anti-progress, it just means that there is further information necessary before we jump to conclusions.