First sampling completed in national fracking study
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By Laura Legere (Staff Writer)
Published: February 28, 2012
The first round of sampling at five case study sites has been completed in a landmark federal study of the potential impacts of oil and gas extraction on water supplies, the Environmental Protection Agency’s study coordinator said Monday.
Results from those tests, which include drinking water and streams sampled between July and November 2011 in Susquehanna and Bradford counties, will be reported in a draft of the study expected to be released in December.
The multiyear, congressionally mandated study is investigating a possible link between water contamination and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the process of injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into underground rock formations to crack the rock and release the oil or gas trapped there.
The EPA is reviewing the full life cycle of the process, from the moment water for fracking is withdrawn from waterways through the mixing of chemicals and the fracturing of wells to the disposal of the wastewater that returns to the surface.
During an update on the study’s progress on Monday, study coordinator Jeanne Briskin said test results from the five case study sites – including Washington County, Pa., and drilling-heavy areas of Colorado, Texas and North Dakota, as well as Bradford and Susquehanna counties – are being audited for accuracy now and another round of sampling is planned between March and July.
“We don’t assume from the beginning that there is any impact of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources,” Briskin said. “We are trying to investigate, where there has been something going on with somebody’s drinking water, what is the cause?”
EPA researchers also have received information from nine randomly selected oil and gas companies about well construction techniques and integrity testing, the chemicals used in fracking their wells and other data.
The agency is reviewing the treatment and disposal of the salt- and metals-laden waste fluid that returns from wells after fracking, including modeling the effects on rivers and downstream drinking water intakes if the wastewater is run through treatment plants that discharge to waterways.
In one subset of the study, the agency is looking at how different forms of wastewater treatment remove, concentrate or leave untouched the chemicals in the gas waste.
The study is expected to be completed in two phases, with the first published draft results released in December of this year and the second at the end of 2014.
llegere@timesshamrock.com