A study of drinking water in Appalachian Ohio found no evidence of natural gas contamination from recent oil and gas drilling.
Geologists with the University of Cincinnati examined drinking water in Carroll, Stark and Harrison counties, a rural region in northeast Ohio where many residents rely on water from private underground wells.
The time-series study was the first of its kind in Ohio to examine methane in groundwater in relation to natural gas drilling.
“Some people had elevated concentrations of methane in their groundwater, but the isotopic composition showed it wasn’t from natural gas” said Amy Townsend-Small, associate professor of geology in UC’s McMicken College of Arts and Sciences.
They found no increase in methane concentration or composition in groundwater over the four years of the study, despite the presence of new shale gas wells drilled in the study area.
But researchers found no relationship between the methane observed in drinking water and the new gas wells.
Lead author and UC graduate Claire Botner said the study solicited participation by homeowners who were willing to let researchers test their wells.
Researchers hypothesized that methane concentrations in the drinking-water wells they sampled would increase over time with the growth of natural gas drilling in the area.
The study concluded that methane observed in groundwater was “biogenic,” or naturally occurring and independent of natural gas drilling.
Wirkner said gas companies test the drinking water of nearby homes before and after they drill a well to observe any changes in water quality.

The three-year study found no relationship between methane concentrations in groundwater and proximity to natural gas wells.
Geologists with the University of Cincinnati examined drinking water in Carroll, Stark and Harrison counties, a rural region in northeast Ohio where many residents rely on water from private underground wells.
The time-series study was the first of its kind in Ohio to examine methane in groundwater in relation to natural gas drilling.
Groundwater sample locations are noted when samples were taken between the years noted in each map.
They found no increase in methane concentration or composition in groundwater over the four years of the study, despite the presence of new shale gas wells drilled in the study area.
But researchers found no relationship between the methane observed in drinking water and the new gas wells.
Lead author and UC graduate Claire Botner said the study solicited participation by homeowners who were willing to let researchers test their wells.
When UC launched its methane study in 2012, Ohio had issued 115 drilling permits for the region.
Researchers hypothesized that methane concentrations in the drinking-water wells they sampled would increase over time with the growth of natural gas drilling in the area.
Wirkner said gas companies test the drinking water of nearby homes before and after they drill a well to observe any changes in water quality.

MAHOMET, Ill. (WCIA) — A natural gas leak in December has left families depending on bottled water.
After it contaminated five wells in Mahomet, those families are still worried.
People’s gas says they’ve tested the methane from the leak.
"They rely on that well water for drinking water, to run their dishwashers to clean their clothes.
It’s something the homeowners think has gone on too long; but, People’s Gas says the nature gas will dissipate over time and they believe they’ve done the initial work to fix the problem, so what homeowners are seeing now is natural.
"There is a lot of natural occurring methane especially in that region," says People’s Gas, Brian Manthey.
"I’m glad that they do so we don’t get sick over it and what not because I do drink the well water. A lot of people don’t but I do," says Richard Ponton of Mahomet.
Since Ponton received notice, People’s Gas says it has taken several other steps since the leak.
"With the separators in the home, it’s separating the natural gas out so the water that they are getting does not contain the natural gas.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a lower court decision that threw out an effort by Fayette County officials to ban the disposal of natural gas production wastes in the county, agreeing that the county’s rules were pre-empted by West Virginia law.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of EQT Production Company, a natural gas firm that had challenged a local ordinance passed by the Fayette County Commission.
In a 2-1 decision, the 4th Circuit ruled that the Fayette County ordinance conflicted with provisions of West Virginia’s Oil and Gas Act and the state Department of Environmental Protection’s underground injection control, or UIC, program that issues permits for disposal of natural gas industry and other wastes under the state’s water pollution law.
Judge James Wynn dissented and said that a case with such “broad implications for environmental protection in West Virginia” should have been sent to the state Supreme Court for a decision for a more thorough review there about the balancing of state and local authority on the issue.
Wynn noted that a leading West Virginia case on the subject, a 1985 ruling over a hazardous waste disposal ban in Fairmont, left open the question of whether local governments in the state could simply act against improper handling of waste that had become a public nuisance, or enact broader regulatory rules designed to deal more generally with waste management and disposal.
Fayette County passed its ordinance after residents and local leaders became concerned about the operation of two controversial waste injection wells operated not by EQT, but by a company called Danny Webb Construction.
Because it ruled based on the state’s oil and gas law and its water pollution statute, the 4th Circuit said it did not need to address of whether the county’s ordinance also was preempted by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
Harris and Wynn are Obama administration appointees.
Niemeyer was appointed to a U.S. District Court seat by President Ronald Reagan and to the 4th Circuit by President George H.W.
Bush.

This new facility, however, would burn natural gas.
The Long View on Coal Energy Secretary Perry recently toured North America’s youngest, most efficient coal-fired electricity plant, Longview Power near Fort Martin, West Virginia.
Longview officials say the plant produces 90 percent less particulate pollution than other coal plants.
It also produces less carbon dioxide compared to other coal plants, because of its high efficiency and partial use of natural gas as a complementary fuel.
“So now the natural efficiency of generating electricity with gas for the same amount of gas energy as coal energy is about half of the costs, basically,” he said.
“Directly behind me is the new Paradise combined-cycle facility,” he said.
Jones started at the Paradise coal facility a decade ago and worked his way from conveyer operator to unit operator and now a job at the new gas facility.
But what Prine couldn’t see then were some of the profound public health effects of burning coal, effects that would take years to measure.
The TVA has been burning coal in Paradise for fifty years.
“There are cleaner forms of coal, but none of them are as clean as, say, natural gas.” Goldstein said despite a lack of data to understand the full health effects of the natural gas industry, it is a significantly cleaner fossil fuel to burn.

PROVIDENCE — Opponents of a proposed natural-gas project on Allens Avenue objected to the location and format of a public meeting as much as the the fossil-fuel project itself.
National Grid tried to keep the focus of discussion on contaminated soil and water removal work within the 42-acre site.
Most attendees, though, wanted to discuss the validity of the proposed gas liquefaction plant.
It started as a coal gasification plant in 1910, and has been used as a fossil-fuel storage and processing plant for decades.
The 175-foot tall, 2-billion-cubic-foot LNG storage tank was built in 1974.
Amy Willoughby, the project manager for National Grid, described “strict dust-control measures” such as water trucks and plastic sheeting that will contain polluted airborne dust during excavation.
She said groundwater would be pumped into holding tanks and eventually shipped to disposal facilities outside Rhode Island.
Carvalho noted online searches and public information listing National Grid’s history of violations and poor safety record.
The new LNG proposal doesn’t include plans to deliver LNG by ship.
Once converted into LNG through extreme cooling, the concentrated gas would be shipped by special tanker trucks to LNG storage tanks in the region.

ONGC officers reject charges of water pollution in Cauvery basin.
CHENNAI: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) has denied allegations of ground water contamination in the Thanjavur belt because of its exploration activities and said the containment of oil leak last week due to rupture in the pipeline in Kathiramangalam village in Thanjavur district was delayed by 10 hours as protesters refused entry to officials.
Kulbir Singh, executive director (asset manager) of ONGC along with T Rajendran, deputy general manager, Geology, and Basin Manager (Cauvery) told reporters that had it not been for the protesters, the leak, which happened at 8.30 am last Friday, would have been plugged within 10 to 15 minutes.
It was finally contained 10 hours later.
A total of 15 cents of land was affected due to the leakage, ONGC officials said.
“We will be changing the pipe, which was laid seven to eight years ago.
The damage is yet to be assessed.
We have stopped operations.
The oil well produces 50 to 60 tonnes of oil per day,” said Rajendran.
Rejecting allegations that they intended exploring shale gas, a natural gas trapped in sedimentary formation, or coal bed methane, a form of natural gas extracted from coal, Rajendran said that they don’t have permission from the Centre to do so.

A natural-gas-infrastructure project slated for southern New England came to a screeching halt June 29, when Houston-based Spectra Energy Partners announced it is suspending the controversial Access Northeast project.
The buildout of the Algonquin natural-gas pipeline centered on a series of extensions and nine compressor station projects between New York and Massachusetts, including a new compressor station in Rehoboth, Mass., and the expansion of a compressor station in Burrillville, R.I.
The effort hit a snag in late 2016, when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rejected a plan by the three companies to charge electric ratepayers for the natural-gas projects.
The Access Northeast project provoked stiff local criticism and the formation of opposition groups such as Citizens Against the Rehoboth Compressor Station (CARCS), The FANG Collective and Burrillville Against Spectra Energy.
Opponents united over heath, safety and environmental risks such as air and water pollution, fires and explosions, noise, climate-change impacts, and the notion that the projects helped the export of natural gas from hydraulic fracturing fields in Pennsylvania and Ohio to coastal terminals in or near New England.
Katkevich and other activists say there are still many more southern New England projects to oppose, such as Spectra’s Atlantic Bridge project, which includes a bitterly contested compressor station in Weymouth, Mass.
“We agree and support the messaging from all the other anti-pipeline groups."
Manzella sees bigger forces to reckon with, such as fossil-fuel-friendly policies advanced by the operator of the New England power grid, ISO New England, and Massachusetts Gov.
Charlie Baker.
Access Northeast is the second canceled pipeline project.

Eighth Major Report Finds Water Contamination From Fracking ‘Has Not Been Observed’.
The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST) released its study Monday, concluding that contamination of drinking water from fracking “has not been observed in Texas.” The report noted that fracking is “highly unlikely” to contaminate drinking water aquifers, which are often far away from where the oil or natural gas is extracted.
“This study is yet another indication that the campaign to shut down fracking is based on politics, not science,” Steve Everley, spokesman, Texans for Natural Gas, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“If fracking were a credible risk to groundwater, we would know about it in Texas, which produces more oil and natural gas than any other state.
The fact that such an incident hasn’t been observed here is further confirmation that fracking is safe and well-regulated,” Everley said.
The report also noted that fracking has helped Texas’s economy and reduced energy-related emissions.
TAMEST’s study also notes that fracking has had other beneficial impacts on Texas, including making the state’s cleaner and reviving local economies.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a five-year study in 2016 that found fracking was not causing widespread groundwater contamination.
“We haven’t seen anything to show that wells have been contaminated by fracking.” A Duke University study published earlier this month and funded by the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) came to the same conclusions as TAMEST.
For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The second project, led by Jonny Rutqvist, will receive $1.6 million to develop a new 3-D methodology to identify and monitor areas at high risk of ground deformation caused by sinking land.
"There is an urgent need for a risk management system that is thorough, robust, and reliable and that will facilitate early damage detection and leak prevention."
Zhang will lead a multidisciplinary team of scientists who will develop and demonstrate a system aimed at helping facility operators and risk managers characterize, model, and manage the safety and integrity of underground natural gas storage infrastructure.
Scientific models to manage risk California has 14 underground storage facilities in 12 fields with a capacity of 385 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
In addition to leaks through wells, earthquakes, landslides, and caprock fracturing could also cause potential damage to natural gas storage facilities and possible natural gas leakage.
"The way these wells were constructed decades ago may not be adequate for today’s standards," Zhang said.
Zhang’s system — dubbed the Integrated Risk Management and Decision-Support System (IRMDSS) — will merge advanced monitoring technologies with scientific models to continuously assess risks and provide early leakage detection.
How drought led to ground deformation To make matters worse for the state’s aging pipelines, the extreme drought led to large increases in groundwater pumping, which in turn has resulted in unprecedented rates of subsidence.
Berkeley Lab and InfraTerra Inc., in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, PG&E, and Natural Resources Canada, will develop a new methodology that combines large-scale, state-of-the-art remote sensing surveys linked with advanced modeling and inverse analysis of ground deformation.
A key advancement of this technology is to consider the full 3-D ground deformations and their impact on pipelines, including both horizontal (lateral) and vertical components of surface deformation.