Fracking isn’t contaminating groundwater, study finds.
A major anti-fracking argument by environmentalists may not have the facts to back it up, a new study conducted by Duke University found.
Fracking has not contaminated groundwater in northwestern West Virginia, according to the peer-reviewed study published this month in a European journal.
“Based on consistent evidence from comprehensive testing, we found no indication of groundwater contamination over the three-year course of our study,” explained Avner Vengosh, the professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment.
The growing industry could help create as many as 3.5 million jobs by 2035, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
While the study concluded that fracking didn’t contaminate groundwater, the researchers did say accidental spills of fracking wastewater could be dangerous to surface water in the area.
West Virginia groundwater not affected by fracking, but surface water is https://t.co/VNzsjEXA37 pic.twitter.com/7CcgZ7pZo8 — Duke Environment (@DukeEnvironment) April 24, 2017 ”However, we did find that spill water associated with fracked wells and their wastewater has an impact on the quality of streams in areas of intense shale gas development,” Vengosh added.
“The bottom-line assessment,” he continued, “is that groundwater is so far not being impacted, but surface water is more readily contaminated because of the frequency of spills.” To complete the research, water samples from 112 drinking wells in northwestern West Virginia were evaluated during a three year period.
Twenty of the water wells were sampled prior to drilling or fracking started in the area in order to obtain a baseline for later comparisons.
Tests demonstrated the presence of saline groundwater and methane in both the pre-drilling and post-drilling well water samples.

Groundwater drunk by BILLIONS of people may be contaminated by radioactive material spread across the world by nuclear testing in the 1950s.
A shocking new study has revealed that groundwater drunk by billions of people may have been contaminated by decades of nuclear weapons testing.
Researchers looked at more than 6,000 wells around the globe, some containing water more than 10,000 years old, found more than half had traces of tritium.
Although most of the groundwater that is accessible from deep wells is thousands of years old, the presence of tritium – an isotope of hydrogen – shows at least some of it is vulnerable to modern contamination.
He said: ‘It supplies drinking water to literally billions of people and therefore if the reserves are vulnerable to contamination, we really need to know about that.’
But much more groundwater has been stored beneath the Earth’s surface for many thousands of years.
They said this is significant because tritium was spread around the globe by nuclear testing carried out in the 1950s, showing at least some of the groundwater in the wells post-dates this time.
Professor Kirchner said: ‘Tritium occurs in rainfall as a by product of nuclear weapons testing in the mid 1900s.
A third of Americans get their drinking water from public water systems that use ground water, more than 105 million people.
The oceans contain about 97 per cent of the Earth’s water, but that, of course, isn’t drinkable.

Water shortage hits 20 Shan villages.
In some villages in Shan State water scarcity is forcing villagers and animals to travel for miles in search of drinking water.
SOME 20 villages in Shan State’s Pindaya and Kalaw townships are facing water shortages after wells and reservoirs dried out, locals and the Taung Yoe Youth Network said.
The network’s leader Ko Aung San said the locals have been facing water shortage troubles since mid last month.
When summer comes, the water starts to dry up and the people have no water,” he told The Myanmar Times.
The rain had given the villages enough water for a week, he said.
U Nyi Nyi, Shan State MP for Pindaya township, told The Myanmar Times that those locations were “not the worst” as the people had enough water from donors.
“There was some rain, so the donations have stopped.
He also said the state government was installing water supply systems at the wards in Pindaya and some villages in the township.
‘’I found some villages having a lot of trouble with the water shortage because their rain reservoirs and well have dried up.

Islamabad As the political parties are set to exploit water issue in Islamabad in their campaign leading to the next general elections, the Municipal Corporation of Islamabad (MCI) has claimed to meet the shortage in the next little over two years after completing water supply project from Indus River. The next general elections if everything goes smoothly would be held, next year and the water crisis in Islamabad is becoming hot issue for the election campaigns. The local leadership of two main opposition parties Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) have already started grilling the government and civic bodies for their failure to ensure sufficient supply of water to residents of the federal capital. Feeling that water shortage is the burning issue in Islamabad, the political parties have been staging demonstrations besides displaying banners across the federal capital. The Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz and his government have also been facing severe criticism from the opposition members and chairmen of his own party in the last three sessions of the MCI With the advent of early summer season excluding the last couple of days, the requirement of water had increased but the supply remained at 54 Million Gallons per Day (MGD) which is less than half of total capacity of water reservoirs like…

Health authorities still not satisfied all Christchurch drinking water is safe.
Canterbury health authorities are still not satisfied 80,000 Christchurch residents have access to safe drinking water, despite shallow wells no longer being used.
Canterbury medical officer of health Dr Alistair Humphrey ordered the council to provide an assurance the water being supplied to residents in suburbs was safe.
* Chlorinating water in Christchurch’s northwest is off the table * Water in Christchurch’s northwest could be chlorinated * Health officials want assurance D-rated northwest Christchurch water supply safe * Christchurch’s drinking water contaminated 125 times in four years * Positive E coli tests ‘not surprising’ in Christchurch untreated water supply * Chlorination extends to Hastings after E coli found in tanker with ‘clean’ water In response, the council decided to spend an extra $480,000 to accelerate a $16 million programme to replace all 22 shallow wells.
The wells still needed to be available for an emergency event and could only be fully decommissioned when all the new deep wells were in service, council three waters and waste planning and deliver manager John Moore said.
This was not expected to happen until June 2019.
He said once he received the information that the new bores met groundwater security criteria he would be satisfied the residents would have access to safe drinking water.
"CDHB is aware of the council’s timeframes and to date has not raised any concerns or indicated that they believe that the shallow bores pose an untenable risk."
Water from the shallow wells had a "D" risk grading, which was classed as an unsatisfactory level of risk.
– Stuff

Most Californians are – finally – out of the drought, but the record-setting rains have not washed away emergency conditions for all residents.
Jerry Brown’s April 7 executive order lifted the drought state of emergency for 54 of California’s 58 counties.
“This drought emergency is over, but the next drought could be around the corner.” — Jerry Brown By keeping those areas under drought rules, authorities can bypass lengthy contract requirements and quickly provide assistance for areas facing drinking water shortages, said Max Gomberg, the climate and conservation manager for the State Water Resources Control Board, which enforces water regulations.
“We still got communities that are water short, but the (drought state of emergency) allows us to complete projects that are already under way,” Gomberg said.
Gomberg said Central Valley agricultural wells were dug so deep during the drought that shallower domestic wells in nearby rural communities went dry.
Though Kings, Tulare and Fresno counties also contain some of California’s largest agricultural areas, Gomberg said the executive order will have virtually no impact on the areas’ farmers.
Those served by the federal Central Valley Project received welcome news when The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation a full, 100 percent water allocation for 2017.
Gayle Holman, a spokeswoman for Westlands Water District, said the increase will slow growers from pumping the Central Valley’s groundwater supply.
She noted that “Making Conservation a California Way of Life,” another Brown-signed executive order that aims to build long-term drought resistance throughout California, should also protect rural areas from future dry conditions.
Part of the order directs the state Department of Water Resources must work with counties to develop better drought planning for small rural areas, a requirement previously held only for larger water suppliers that had over 3,000 connections.

Family reaches settlement with Dartmouth over water contamination.
Union Leader Correspondent HANOVER — Dartmouth College has reached a settlement with the Higgins family who said they suffered health problems from drinking well water contaminated by runoff from a site where the college once dumped animals used in scientific experiments.
The college issued a statement Wednesday saying it and the Higgins family “have reached a negotiated settlement of all claims related to contamination of the drinking water well at 9 Rennie Road.” It said it will allow the family of Richard and Debbie Higgins “to move on with their lives in a new location.” “We’re just happy that we are being able to move on,” Richard Higgins said Wednesday.
He said they are hoping to stay in Hanover, but it depends on if they can find a suitable building lot on which they can build a wheelchair accessible home for themselves.
Higgins would not comment on the details of the agreement.
The Higgins revealed in Febuary 2016 that they were in mediation with the college after their water tested at 6 parts per billion of 1,4-dioxane, exceeding state standards of 3 parts per billion.
The chemical was used in the animal experiments.
The Environmental Protection Agency classifies 1,4-dioxane as a probable human carcinogen and says exposure may cause damage to the central nervous system, liver and kidneys.
The lab animal dumping ground was used by Dartmouth’s medical school from 1960 to the mid-1970s and operated under a state license.
mpierce@newstote.com

Liberia: The Shocking Truth About Our Drinking Water.
On March 22, 2017, during the observance of World Water Day, UNICEF reported that by 2040, one in four children worldwide will be living in areas with extreme limited water resources, a realization that has already affected many children living in Liberia.
One of the major challenges in communities that have no access to functioning water supplies and functioning sewage systems, is drinking from contaminated or poisoned (chlorine) drinking wells; something that is done unintentionally.
According to the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC), one of the chemicals that is used and is accessible in the market to clear the bacteria and germs caused by nature’s natural microbes is chlorine, a chemical which, in its natural form, is a greenish-yellow gas and has a strong smell that is used as bleach, oxidizing agent and to disinfect in water during purification.
Presently in Liberia and many parts of the world, chlorine is normally sold in small water bottles filled with its powder residue, and sometimes the poisonous gas liquid.
It is sold as little as US$3 and without any questions from the consumer; they are told to drop it in their wells and to wait three days before drinking from them.
According to UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, during the observance of World Water Day, "water is elemental; without it, nothing can grow.
Meanwhile, a family in Caldwell recalls that during the Ebola period many women and children became ill and lost their lives from drinking from contaminated or ‘poisoned’ wells.
"People would drink a cup and start vomiting; and before two or three days, die from stomach challenges," the family added.
It is proven that when chlorine gas comes into contact with moist body tissues such as the eyes, throat, and lungs, an acid is produced that can damage these tissues and causes: blurred vision; burning pain, redness, and blisters on the skin if exposed to gas.

Jury: Trucking companies not to blame for drinking water contamination in Sauk Village.
A federal jury has ruled two trucking companies are not liable for drinking water contamination in suburban Sauk Village, granting a win to their firms in their court battle with the village, which had contended the trucking companies spilled cancer-causing chemicals into the groundwater the village pumps from its wells into the homes and businesses connected to its water system.
On April 13, the jury entered its verdict, ending a four-day trial and coming as potentially the final step in a legal battle dating back to 2014.
At that time, the village, located in far southern Cook County, first filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court, accusing the trucking firms, Roadway Express and YRC Worldwide, of leaking chemical pollutants, including vinyl chloride, into the ground near one of the village’s three wells.
After disconnecting Well No.
3 from the village’s water supply to allow time to investigate, the village said it also began detecting rising levels of vinyl chloride in its other two wells, as well, prompting the village to spend $5.3 million to address the problem, and to petition for an emergency connection to Lake Michigan water to continue to meet the water needs of the village’s 10,000 residents.
Vinyl chloride is associated with an increased risk of various cancers, the National Cancer Institute said.
“It was a complete victory and vindication for YRC and Roadway Express.
"The victory signifies the end of protracted litigation between the village and our clients as the jury found that Roadway and YRC were not a cause of the vinyl chloride contamination affecting the Sauk Village wells.” Sauk Village was represented in the action by attorneys with the firms of Odelson & Sterk, of Evergreen Park, and Davis & Norris, of Birmingham, Ala. Other Cook County suburbs have also struggled with vinyl chloride contamination.
Since 2009, the village of Crestwood, located about 20 miles northwest of Sauk Village, has dealt with political and legal fallout over accusations officials there covered up the presence of vinyl chloride in the village’s well water supply for decades, resulting in cancers and other health problems for village residents.

Where women dominate the digging of wells.
Hitherto an unskilled labourer in local agricultural fields, 55-year-old O. Ammini is quite proud of her new role as a trained well-digger.
“Except for half a dozen wells in rocky terrains, all the wells now provide water in the panchayat where tanker lorries used to meet drinking water needs every alternate day.
Buoyed by the success, we are prompting the women to construct 310 wells in three years.
As the expenses are being met under MGNREGS, the families are getting the wells for free,” said panchayat president K. Jayadevan, who conceptualized the initiative.
“Our aim is to achieve water self-sufficiency by digging wells for free to families in need.
A water festival was organised in the panchayat when the collective completed the construction of the 100th well in the compound of local resident K. Akki.
The permission for each well was granted by the panchayat after securing an affidavit on stamp paper from the landowner stating that he or she will allow the public to draw water from the well.
“The panchayat is now undertaking large-scale rainwater harvesting initiatives.
Once drinking water scarcity is solved, we can achieve better living standards,” said Mr. Jayadevan.