Fracking Contaminates Drinking Water...You Want This In Your Backyard?

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UPDATE: Study Links Gas Drilling To Contaminated Drinking Water



By Ryan Tracy

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Researchers found some of the first evidence that a drilling method used to extract natural gas can contaminate drinking water, according to a study published Monday.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found evidence that methane contaminated drinking water in areas near drilling sites in northeastern Pennsylvania. It didn't find traces of chemicals used as part of the drilling process.

Though methane may not be toxic if ingested, it was present at levels high enough to pose "a potential explosion hazard," the scientists said. Methane can also be dangerous if inhaled at high concentrations in an enclosed space.

A spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America, an industry group, questioned the findings, saying the study doesn't prove a link between methane levels and drilling operations.

Natural-gas drilling has boomed in Pennsylvania and in other parts the U.S. in recent years, thanks to technological advances that have unlocked reserves of gas in shale formations deep underground. But the boom has been coupled with concerns that the drilling methods, including hydraulic fracturing, could contaminate drinking water.

The study's authors said more research and information was needed to improve public confidence in the safety of the shale-gas extraction.