WV Official: No Cases of Water Contamination from Fracking
The top oil and gas regulator in West Virginia said at a conference on Wednesday that he has not seen any confirmed cases of groundwater contamination from fracking in West Virginia.
During a natural gas engineering conference in Morgantown, James Martin, chief of the West Virginia Office of Oil and Gas, said he is unaware of any instance in which fracking has released methane into a drinking water well. Martin oversees the office, which is a division of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.
Martin emphasized, however, such a problem is not out of the question, so he urged the 200 drilling industry workers in attendance to ensure that gas wells are properly constructed and cased with steel and concrete.
"The casing of wells is getting more attention lately. This is one area I don’t think anyone wants to cut corners on," Martin said. "The casing is critical to overall development."*
*The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register (Nov 3, 2011) – DEP: No Cases of Fracking Contamination
Wow when done safely and correctly NG development through Hydro-Fracking is a viable and safe way to obtain an economical source of energy for the country – Who Knew???!!!!
Unfortunately that staement is only now being heard out of the mouths of people who are “on the fence” about the issue. To those in the industry who want this to continue – PLEASE contune to run the advertisements in the main stream media. Most people believe the first thing they read or see without knowing if it is factual or not.
Oooh, oooh, ask about SURFACE water contamination. There’s plenty of those. The Mon River (drinking water supply to millions, wherein the TDS levels rose so high, that those of us with underlying health conditions got furiously sick). Dunkard Creek (STILL dead!), various degraded tribs of the Blackwater, to name a few. And I might mention that, due to the unflinching pro-industry devotion of WV pols, there is an extremely weak regulatory structure in the state that is riddled with corruption on every level.