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SU professor publishes study challenging previous fracking, water contamination research

A Syracuse University professor has published a study that contradicts previous findings that suggest a correlation between hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, and drinking water contamination.

Donald Siegel, chair and professor in the Earth sciences department, said his research group has found “no statistically significant relationship between dissolved methane concentration in groundwater from domestic water wells and proximity to pre-existing oil or gas wells.”

Siegel’s research study, which was published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology on March 12, also discredits two previous findings from 2011 and 2013 that indicated higher concentrations of methane in water at water wells near fracking sites.

“Prior studies published by scientists at Duke and Stanford universities argued the opposite — that the closer you are to a gas well, the more methane you can expect in your drinking water. They were wrong,” Siegel said in an email.

“They used only about 100 samples instead of tens of thousands, and sampled in a manner that led to false results,” Siegel said. “Their incorrect findings, unfortunate for science, if not for the political end some wanted, were used to successfully argue for the ban on new gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale in New York state.”



Siegel said he obtained access to non-compiled data sets of more than 11,300 water samples and about 600 oil and gas wells in several locations in northeastern Pennsylvania.

The data was collected by the Chesapeake Energy Corporation and distributed to homeowners in New York state. He and his colleagues studied a broad range of statistics showing there is no increase in methane dissolved in ground water the closer a person is to a gas well, Siegel said.

Robert Jackson, a professor of hydrogeology at Stanford University, was quoted in an article from Science Insider saying that the data from the Chesapeake Energy Corporation Siegel used is dubious. Jackson, who authored the previous studies, also said collecting a larger amount of samples would not guarantee the better quality of study.

Jackson could not be reached for further comment.

“Those against oil and gas will still not believe my paper, even if my data set included essentially all the domestic wells (from a statistical basis), and not a small sample of them,” Siegel said.

When asked about what the result means to him, Siegel said the results do not advance science.

“I knew I would get my results before I did the study, based on my studying hydrology and water chemistry for over 40 years,” Siegel said.

Siegel said almost every farm well in Appalachia and central New York has methane in its water. He added that the United States Geological Survey would argue all wells do.

Fracking is done through high-pressure injection of water, sand and other chemicals to facilitate drawing out oil and gas. The method has been controversial since some studies suggest that it is responsible for earthquakes, and fertility and birth defects.

States like New York, Connecticut and Vermont ban fracking citing environmental concerns.

However, Siegel said the issue of fracking has been politicized, which leads people to fail to acknowledge scientific truth.





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