We’ve all seen the pictures in the paper or on the TV news. A homeowner opens their kitchen tap or outdoor faucet, takes a lighter, and sets the water on fire. Very cool, huh?  But it’s probably not very cool to the homeowner. The homeowner has natural gas in their water. They are worried that the natural gas got into their well from a process called hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracturing for short (some people even shorten the term to just fracking). Hydrofracturing is being widely used to develop oil and gas resources in what are called “tight” shales. In addition to natural gas, homeowners also worry that chemicals used during hydrofracturing may end up in their drinking water wells. 

I’m a geologist and have worked in the environmental field for some 30 years. So I get the question all the time from people. Is it really possible for the hydrofracturing process to contaminate people’s water wells with natural gas? My off the cuff response has always been, oh no, I don’t see how it is possible. Oil and gas development is really deep – a mile or more beneath the surface. Most groundwater wells are much shallower. There are miles of rock between where the oil and gas is located and where the groundwater is. And on top of that, oil and gas companies use cement to protect groundwater resources during hydrofracturing. As they are drilling, they insert steel casing into the hole. To protect groundwater they cement the area between the rock and the casing.

 But what about those pictures of burning water, people ask? In areas where there are lots of oil and gas resources, water may have natural methane in it. Maybe the homeowner just never tried to light their water before. I further explain that in the 1800’s drillers often located oil resources from the natural oil seeps they would find at the surface. Scientists have even documented methane seeps on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico where we all know there is a ton of oil and gas wells.

The problem with many scientists like me is that we often give these off the cuff assessments based on limited knowledge. I’ve been a little uncomfortable about my response because frankly I haven’t followed the science on the issue. So I decided, if I’m going to provide some expertise on the subject instead of admitting I just don’t know, I had better inform myself about the science. Now the good thing is that I had been following the hydrofracturing controversy (just a little bit) a few years back and I know that the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the United States Geological Survey have been working on a series of studies to answer the questions so many people have about hydrofracturing. Like how effective is that cementing in preventing gas and hydrofracturing fluid from getting into groundwater? What are some of the ways that gas and hydrofracturing fluids could get from those deep rocks where the oil and gas is being developed into people’s much shallower water wells? Are gases and fluids migrating upward along faults and fractures through thousands of feet of rock? Or are those fluids and gases coming up through old abandoned oil and gas wells that were never properly cemented or plugged?

 It’s been several years since EPA, DOE and the USGS embarked on these studies. I think it was in 2011 that I first heard about them. So I thought what the heck, I’ll just get onto EPA’s website and see what they have to say. I’m sure they will have issued some scientific reports by now. I’ll read them and then the next person who asks me about the possibility of the hydrofracturing process contaminating groundwater will get a better informed answer. I’ll let you know what I find out.