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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsContaminated Water Supplies, Health Concerns Accumulate With Fracking Boom in Pennsylvania
As the first official research is published that confirms water contamination by hydraulic fracturing, an alarming amount and array of hazardous chemicals and compounds - including arsenic, chloride, barium and radium - are found in Pennsylvania groundwater.
Shortly after a gas company in Donegal, Pennsylvania, began storing fracking wastewater in an impoundment pit, a water well at a nearby home showed some alarmingly elevated levels of barium and strontium.
The Southwest Pennsylvania home sits within 2,000 feet of the impoundment pit, which began leaking in late 2012, Kathryn Hilton told Truthout. Hilton is a community organizer at the Mountain Watershed Association, a nonprofit dedicated to water conservation in the state's Indian Creek Watershed.
In August, 2012, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) test results showed levels of barium and strontium above EPA standards. "Those are hazardous chemicals that can cause health problems when exposed to for extended periods of time," Hilton said.
The unidentified property owners were unable to comment about the incident because they are involved in active litigation with the gas company, WPX Energy. The company has since removed the impoundment pit, but the homeowner is still "using a water buffalo" for drinking water, Hilton told Truthout. In June, 2013, the DEP's Oil and Gas Program issued a determination letter concluding that the high chemical levels were caused by the nearby fracking activity, according to an agency spokesperson.
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http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/22407-contaminated-water-supplies-health-concerns-accumulate-with-fracking-boom-in-pennsylvania
jsr
(7,712 posts)Now who could have thunk that they would pollute with impunity?
cali
(114,904 posts)hootinholler
(26,449 posts)It's not waste water, it's waste fracking fluid. It might contain a bunch of water when it goes in and a bunch of water coming out, but it's fracking fluid, not water.
cali
(114,904 posts)Snarkoleptic
(5,997 posts)I live in suburban Chicago and our natgas bill increased 50% last month compared with January.
The market is distorted and NOT in our favor, which makes me think that Wall Street speculators are running up commodity prices.
January cost 46cents/therm
February cost 51cents/therm
March cost 68cents/therm (a 48% increase over the January cost)