News

January 3, 2010

More water monitoring coming to NEPA area

Concerns about possible pollution from gas drilling prompt Susquehanna River agency.

In reaction to rising concern about the potential for natural-gas drilling to cause water pollution, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission announced in December that it will begin rolling out an enhanced water monitoring system throughout the basin.

The system of monitors would report in real time to a Web site, where the public could check various water conditions, including electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen levels and cloudiness.

“We’re starting this because there’s obviously a growing concern about water quality impacts from increased natural gas drilling,” said Susan Obleski, a spokeswoman for the SRBC.

Without the data, she said, pollution concerns cannot be supported by evidence.

The project was initially conceived as 30 monitors in streams and creeks, but the network has been expanded since East Resources, Inc., a natural gas company based in Warrendale, announced it will be contributing $750,000 to cover the cost of those monitors.

“So the 30 is hopefully going to be the starting part,” Obleski said. The first 10, including one on Meshoppen Creek in Wyoming County, are scheduled to be installed in January. Two weeks after installation, the SRBC hopes to launch the real-time Web site to the public.

The commission has noted “watersheds of interest” where it wants to see monitors, including Nanticoke Creek, Bowman’s Creek, Mehoopany Creek and Tunkhannock Creek.

The commission is allocating $250,000 of its own funding toward the project. Each monitor station costs at least $20,000.

They consist of a device that can take readings from various depths of the water body. Each monitor is encased in a perforated PVC pipe and attached to a solar panel and transmitting device that allows information to be reported constantly.

The high price tag makes security at the stations an issue, Obleski said. “That’s one of the ways that we hope to actually work with local watershed groups” to regularly inspect the stations, she said. “Obviously, if the stations stop recording, we’re going to know something happened. … We realize that’s a potential, we’re hoping that won’t be what we experience.”

The devices will monitor temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen and water clarity, among other things, she said, and that can help pinpoint sources and times of polluting discharges.

“Certain parameters the devices are tracking, changes in those you can almost zero in on that they’re from natural gas drilling,” she said.

The locations of the stations, which will complement those now working in the river itself, are being chosen in relation to existing U.S. Geological Survey gauges.

They’re also taking into account areas of high drilling activity and others where there is no drilling to create baseline data.

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

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