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Groundwater Pollution due to Hydraulic Fracturing

The recent growth of Hydraulic Fracturing ("Fracking") wells in the United States has raised valid concerns regarding its potential risks of contaminating groundwater resources. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with many other researchers, has been delegated to study the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water resources. While the EPA has not found significant evidence of a widespread, systematic impact on drinking water by hydraulic fracturing, this may be due to insufficient systematic pre- and post- hydraulic fracturing data on drinking water quality, and the presence of other agents of contamination that preclude the link between shale oil/gas extraction and its impact.

Despite the EPA's lack of profound widespread evidence, other researchers have made significant observations of rising groundwater contamination in close proximity to major shale oil/gas drilling sites located in Marcellus (Northeastern Pennsylvania) and Horn River Basins (British Columbia, Canada). Within one kilometer of these specific sites, a subset of shallow drinking water consistently showed higher concentration levels of methane, ethane, and propane concentrations than normal. An evaluation of higher noble gas content along with the rise of hydrocarbon levels supports the distinction between hydraulic fracturing fugitive gas and naturally occurring "background" hydrocarbon content. This contamination is speculated to be the result of leaky, failing, or improperly installed gas well casings. Furthermore, it is theorized that contamination could also result from the capillary migration of deep residual hyper-saline water and hydraulic fracturing fluid, slowly flowing through faults and fractures until finally making contact with groundwater resources; however, many researchers argue that the permeability of rocks overlying shale formations are too low to allow this to ever happen sufficiently.

While conclusions regarding groundwater pollution as the result to hydraulic fracturing fluid flow is restricted in both space and time, researchers have hypothesized that the potential for stray gas contamination depends mainly on the integrity of the shale oil/gas well structure, along with its relative geological location to local fracture systems that could potentially provide flow paths for fugitive gas migration.


Hello, BriManly, and welcome to Wikipedia! My name is Ian and I work with the Wiki Education Foundation; I help support students who are editing as part of a class assignment.

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If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on my talk page. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 02:44, 13 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, BriManly,it's Juan Cameros. I am part of Arch 361. I am here to introduce myself. Hopefully, we can chat in class to make the learning process more enjoyable. Nice Meting you...

See you in class.Ecological Factors (talk) 05:18, 9 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Possible topics for article: Groundwater Contamination/Pollution, Water-less Toilets, Septic Systems, River/Canal Dams

Hey BriBri! I'm hoping this is how this thing works! 172.90.241.199 (talk) 18:27, 23 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Your work on groundwater pollution article

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Hi, I am happy to see that you'll work on the groundwater pollution article. Let me know if any questions arise, as I have done some editing work on that article in the past. Make sure you discuss major planned changes on the article's talk page first, thanks. EvMsmile (talk) 02:55, 26 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]