Propublica: New Study: Fluids From Marcellus Shale Likely Seeping Into PA Drinking Water http://www.propublica.org/article/new-study-fluids-from-marcellus-shale-likely-seeping-into-pa-drinking-water
[Excerpted] New research has concluded that salty, mineral-rich fluids deep beneath
Pennsylvania's natural gas fields are likely seeping upward thousands of feet
into drinking water supplies.
Though the fluids were natural and not the byproduct of drilling or hydraulic
fracturing, the finding further stokes the red-hot controversy over fracking in
the Marcellus Shale, suggesting that drilling waste and chemicals could migrate
in ways previously thought to be impossible.
...the brine's presence – and the finding that it moved over thousands of vertical
feet -- contradicts the oft-repeated notion that deeply buried rock layers will
always seal in material injected underground through drilling, mining, or
underground disposal.
"The biggest implication is the apparent presence of connections from deep
underground to the surface," said Robert Jackson, a biology professor at the
Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University and one of the study's
authors. "It's a suggestion based on good evidence that there are places that
may be more at risk."
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