The new study of 11,309 drinking water wells in northeastern Pennsylvania concludes that background levels of methane in the water are unrelated to the location of hundreds of oil and gas wells that tap hydraulically fractured, or fracked, rock formations. The finding suggests that fracking operations are not significantly contributing to the leakage of methane from deep rock formations, where oil and gas are extracted, up to the shallower aquifers where well water is drawn.
The result also calls into question prominent studies in 2011 and 2013 that did find a correlation in a nearby part of Pennsylvania. There, wells closer to fracking sites had higher levels of methane. Those studies, however, were based on just 60 and 141 domestic well samples, respectively.
Guess which studies will get sustained media references.
“…studies in 2011 and 2013 that did find a correlation in a nearby part of Pennsylvania. There, wells closer to fracking sites had higher levels of methane. …”
And it doesn’t say of those studies of wells closer to fracking sites and showing higher levels of methane whether that comparison of methane levels is between wells closer to and wells farther from fracking sites, or is it a comparison of methane levels before and after fracking sites became active. It should not be surprising to find higher methane levels in wells near sites where it is discovered to be worth extracting gas by fracking or by other methods.
Wow. So they now have water wells down to 6000 plus feet? Who knew?
Grew up in that area, remember a friend who could light her kitchen faucet on fire any time she wanted with a lighter. This was the ’70s.
Not to mention that methane is the main ingredient in a fart, so lets all wait for the colon cancer epidemic.
Pennsylvania is a COAL state. They have coal and lead mines all over the state. With coal, you get methane gases and argon gases. Pennsylvania has had water that could be ignited for a hundred years, well before modern fracking and before the birth of the environmental nuts. Anybody who says fracking drives methane is either a liar, stupid, agenda driven, of some combination of all.
OH NOs another public panic dispelled by actual evidence! Not that the MSM will let anyone know about it though.
If a natural gas pocket has survived 100 million years of geological activity, it is you to survive a bit of high pressure injection.
My recollection is the fella lighting his faucet for the anti-fracking propaganda lived close to a place called “Burning Springs”…..
Methane is not exactly a biologically very active material. Let alone a toxic material. If it were — beans would be treated like aconite.
BUT METHANE IS A GRFEENHOUSE GAS!!! So tracking is super-BAD!
It wont stop Greenpeace or the rest of the eco-freak movment from opposing Fracking especialy the gaia worshipping wackos and the tree huggers/granola munchers especialy the hollywood wanks
There should be a natural relationship between fracking and methane in the sense that the wells being fracked are located within the oil & gas pools. All else being equal (natural faults etc), you expect higher concentrations of methane over the oil & gas pools. Is that hard to understand? They don’t drill very many wells into barren formations.
There will be a natural increase in well-water methane over oil & gas pools and there will be an increase in methane contamination where the older well seals have failed. We don’t need Einstein to understand this problem.
As for the solution? Vent existing water wells to eliminate methane in tap water and properly seal the older failed wells. Or do nothing in the spirit of “more research is needed”.
Methane from water wells is biogenic, a by-product of bacterial activity an shallow depth. Much like the methane that is produced from rotting material in a landfill, the organic material in rocks (like the Marcellus Shale) or coal is consumed by bacteria that poop out methane in the process.
Methane from deep formations that are hydraulically stimulated (fracked) are thermogenic, produced from high temperatures breaking down the same organic material into smaller pieces, eventually as small as methane.
OK, so why does that matter? Simple: the mix of gasses from biogenic and thermogenic generation are different. Biogenic gas has a distinct fingerprint of accessory gasses, including CO2 and nitrogen, that are not found in thermogenic methane. A test of the composition of the gas coming from the spigots could conclusively show the origin. If the gas was leaking up from deep fracking, they could show it from that analysis.