Drilling’s effects to be analyzed
www.timesleader.com/news/Drilling_rsquo_s_effects_to_be_analyzed_10-16-2011.html
MATT HUGHES mhughes@timesleader.com
October 17, 2010
Penn State database will look at impact of natural gas on groundwater resources.
Researchers at Penn State University will build a database to analyze the impact of natural gas drilling on Pennsylvania’s groundwater resources.
Funded by a $750,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, the research initiative aims to consolidate water data collected by government agencies, universities, industry stakeholders and citizens groups into a searchable database accessible to the public online.
“It’s very clear that the rate of drilling in the state is going faster and faster, and there have been some impacts on water, so we want to help the people of Pennsylvania pull together some of that data and analyze that impact,” said Susan Brantley, project leader and director of the university’s Earth and Environmental Systems Institute.
Brantley said drilling’s effects on the state’s water resources have thus far been localized, and she expects the statewide data will reflect those localized impacts rather than an overall statewide pattern, but the consolidation of data will also give scientists and lawmakers a sense of the industry’s overall impact on the state’s natural resources.
The data will be posted by the university to a website where users will be able to search and plot data using various search criteria, and researchers at Penn State and other colleges will conduct their own analysis of the data as it is posted.
The challenge, Brantley said, will be to encourage well owners to submit their data, as water well testing is frequently done by homeowners and companies who may not wish to make their data public. The database will maintain anonymity, and will have quality control measures in place to ensure data submitted is genuine and valid, Brantley said.
Eventually, the university plans to train community groups to collect and interpret water data, and is planning a workshop in the spring.
Wilkes University professors Ken Klemow and Dale Bruns, who are conducting their own Department of Energy-funded surface water tests and are working towards building a similar database to Penn State’s for Northeastern Pennsylvania, said the Penn State database will complement their own research and that they hope to find ways to work with the Penn State researchers.
“People are very concerned about water quality as it relates to the Marcellus,” Klemow said. “There have been some statements made, especially in the press, saying that water supplies have been completely decimated, and then you have the industry saying there’s been no impact at all. To settle this question you really need to do the good science.