{"id":1037,"date":"2011-05-10T20:57:45","date_gmt":"2011-05-10T20:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2011-05-10T20:57:45","modified_gmt":"2011-05-10T20:57:45","slug":"poor-well-construction-is-the-culprit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2011\/05\/10\/poor-well-construction-is-the-culprit\/","title":{"rendered":"Poor Well Construction Is The Culprit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The iconic image of shale gas development is the flaming faucet featured in Josh Fox\u2019s recent movie, Gasland.\u00a0 Inquiring minds want to know: \u201chow does methane get into a water faucet, and is hydraulic fracturing of shale to blame?\u201d\u00a0 A Duke University study<\/a> released this week sheds light on these important questions.<\/p>\n

The study, performed by three researchers affiliated with Duke University\u2019s Biology Department and Nicholas School of the Environment, examined 60 drinking water wells in northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New York, the northern tier of the geological formation known as the Marcellus Shale, ground zero for aggressive shale gas development in the eastern United States.\u00a0 And sure enough, methane concentrations were detected in 51 of the 60 wells, with substantially higher concentrations of methane found in drinking water wells closest to active natural gas production sites.\u00a0 While there are numerous instances of methane migrating into drinking water supplies through naturally occurring fissures, even in the absence of gas drilling, this study makes a pretty compelling case that natural gas production can create a problem where none ever existed, or certainly make an existing problem worse.<\/p>\n

But, on the question of whether hydraulic fracturing is to blame, the evidence is less compelling.\u00a0 Indeed, the fact that methane was found in water wells, but the chemicals used to fracture the shale were not, suggests that fracturing may have had nothing to do with the unwanted migration.\u00a0 The culprit, it would seem, are not fissures created by the fracturing of the shale, but rather poor well construction \u2013 specifically, failures in the cement casing surrounding a well \u2013 which enable the natural gas to migrate into the water table as it moves its way up the well to the surface.\u00a0 The authors have noted that \u201cleaky casings\u201d are the most likely cause of problems.<\/p>\n

Poor well construction is a problem that can occur anywhere, whether production is aided by hydraulic fracturing or not.\u00a0 For all of the attention Gasland\u2019s flaming faucet has brought to the hydraulic fracturing debate, this study points our attention to the role that better well construction and design practices can play in reducing the very real problem of methane contamination of well water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The iconic image of shale gas development is the flaming faucet featured in Josh Fox\u2019s recent movie, Gasland.\u00a0 Inquiring minds want to know: \u201chow does methane get into a water faucet, and is hydraulic fracturing of shale to blame?\u201d\u00a0 A Duke University study released this week sheds light on these important questions. The study, performed …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[693],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natural-gas"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPoor Well Construction Is The Culprit - Energy Exchange<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2011\/05\/10\/poor-well-construction-is-the-culprit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poor Well Construction Is The Culprit - Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The iconic image of shale gas development is the flaming faucet featured in Josh Fox\u2019s recent movie, Gasland.\u00a0 Inquiring minds want to know: \u201chow does methane get into a water faucet, and is hydraulic fracturing of shale to blame?\u201d\u00a0 A Duke University study released this week sheds light on these important questions. 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