Marcellus Shale - Gas Wells

October 28, 2010

Wilkes to analyze drilling impact

Water quality data are for gas firms, landowners to prove contamination source.

By Andrew M. Seder aseder@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer
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With natural gas drilling beginning in Luzerne County, concerns have been raised over the safety of drinking water supplies. In response, Wilkes University has established a water quality database so landowners can begin registering water test results to establish baselines in the event future contamination is suspected.

Three professors from the university’s Environmental; Engineering and Earth Sciences Department have been discussing the need for a database for a while. They decided that imminent drilling activity in the Marcellus Shale makes this the time.

“We’ve all been working on local water quality for a long time,” said Professor Brian Redmond, a 35-year educator at the school. He said the drilling industry has focused attention on the issue and has raised this question: “What impact, if any, might there be in the local groundwater quality? The problem is we need a lot more information.”

So the school’s Center for Environmental Quality, which has been conducting water quality analysis and education for two decades, will ask those with private wells to have their wells tested and provide the results to Wilkes for analysis and entry into the online database.

“We’ll try to collate as much information as we could,” Redmond said.

Brian Oram, one of the three professors spearheading the database, said 400 samples already have been collected and the database will go online this fall. Right now, the professors are trying to sort out which testing parameters should be compared and have started the public outreach process of asking residents to share test results they’ve already received or to get their wells tested and share those results.

Redmond said “it’s in the interest of everyone to establish … the quality of the water before drilling.”

For property owners, it could help prove contamination didn’t exist before drilling, and for gas companies it could help show that in fact, a well was already registering high numbers of certain contaminants, Redmond said.

The tests are not inexpensive; a basic one that measures just a dozen basic elements such as iron, methane, sodium, chloride and barium will run at least $300. Redmond said having the results could make the difference in proving a legal case.

“We realize the baseline testing requires a significant investment by the homeowner,” said Professor Sid Halsor. And though much of the concern about water quality has come from those within a few miles of a proposed drill site, Halsor said he hopes testing will be done and the results shared from those throughout Luzerne and Columbia counties.

“Just because your land is not leased for gas drilling, it does not mean you’re immune from the impact,” Halsor added.

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