Wilkes creates water quality database

http://citizensvoice.com/news/wilkes-creates-water-quality-database-1.955949

Wilkes creates water quality database

BY ELIZABETH SKRAPITS (STAFF WRITER)
Published: August 18, 2010

WILKES-BARRE – Due to natural gas companies’ increasing interest in the Marcellus Shale, Wilkes University’s Center for Environmental Quality is establishing Northeastern Pennsylvania’s first water quality database to determine the condition of groundwater and surface water before drilling activity commences.

Property owners in Luzerne and Columbia counties who have had their private wells tested by state-certified laboratories are invited to contribute the data, which will be collected and used to help pinpoint any changes or trends in water quality.

“We’ll take information from any wells from anywhere,” Brian Redmond said.

Geologists Redmond, Sid Halsor and Brian Oram, who have a combined 100 years of groundwater experience in the region, will manage the database. Oram is director of the Center for Environmental Quality and Redmond and Halsor are professors in the Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences department at Wilkes. They held a press conference Thursday to announce the launch of the database.

Previous water quality tests were limited, said Redmond, who held up a copy of an outdated 1984 study by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Now, with the interest in the Marcellus Shale, the big question is what impact, if any, will natural gas drilling have on the groundwater, “especially with all those lovely private wells,” Redmond said.

He said public water suppliers are required to test for a “long, long list of things” and make the results public. But many homeowners don’t test their wells, he said.

The three geologists stressed the importance of having well testing done before any drilling takes place, in order to establish a baseline of what already is or isn’t in the water.

There are many potential sources of contamination, ranging from bacteria to the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. Methane migration can occur even in areas where there isn’t any natural gas drilling, and Oram said arsenic can be found naturally in groundwater.

Testing can determine where the contaminants come from. For example, if the well water contains a high level of salt, it could be caused by the hydraulic fracturing of a well.

But it could also come from a well so deep it is below sea level, or from road salt, Redmond said. The well should be tested for other things that might indicate the source. An anti-caking agent is usually added to road salt, he said.

To maximize the value of the water test data, a geographic information system will be used for digital maps, Redmond said. If homeowners see elevated levels of things in their well water, they will be able to see if the same parameters are elevated elsewhere – whether it’s isolated or part of a trend, and if it’s a trend, where concentrations are highest, indicating the source, he said.

So far, more than 400 homeowners in Luzerne and Columbia counties, some of whom are in potential drilling areas, have contributed their test results, Halsor said. Oram said the data should be posted on Wilkes’ website by the fall.

Participation is voluntary, and Oram said homeowners’ personal information will be kept confidential; wells will be identified by geographic coordinates and zip codes.

All property owners with wells can contribute their test data, including those who are beyond the distance of natural gas well sites.

“Just because your land is not leased to a gas company doesn’t mean you’re immune to the impact,” Halsor noted.

eskrapits@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2072