USGS: WV Shale Drilling has No Effect on Mon River Basin Water

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Hey Delaware River Basin Commission–listen up. There’s another river basin not far from you–the Monongahela River Basin in Pennsylvania and West Virginia–that has seen a LOT of Marcellus Shale fracking over the past eight years. Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) did some water testing, both before fracking began and recently. They compared the results. What do the results show? “No significant difference from historical water samples” between then and now. What about methane in the water. EVERYBODY knows those frackers can’t help themselves and that methane travels like an STD once you start sinking holes all over the place. Methane will spot a surface water source a mile away and make a beeline for it, right? So what about methane levels then and now? “Although methane was detected in samples, the concentrations were similar to those in samples collected prior to intensive shale gas development.” Huh. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that it’s actually SAFE to drill in a watershed like the Monongahela–or the Delaware? The science says it is, but of course that won’t convince anti-drilling nutters…

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