Cornell Grad Students Publish Well Water Study from Upstate NY
Some real science coming from Cornell University–who knew it was possible? Normally we associate the discredited theories of professors Robert Howarth and Anthony Ingraffea with the storied Cornell. They claim burning coal is better for the environment than burning natural gas (see Forbes Article Exposes Cornell Prof Howarth and His “Research”). It took a grad student at Cornell to conduct some real, fundamental, in-the-field research that will benefit Marcellus and Utica Shale drilling–IF it ever happens in New York. Doctoral student Lauren McPhillips is the lead author of a research paper recently published in the Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies. The study is titled “Assessing dissolved methane patterns in central New York groundwater” (full copy below). McPhillips and her fellow researchers recorded the chemicals found in 113 water wells in Chenango County, NY, to serve as a baseline when/if widespread shale drilling comes to the county…
Read More “Cornell Grad Students Publish Well Water Study from Upstate NY”
A new research study from Stanford University titled “Enhanced Formation of Disinfection By-Products in Shale Gas Wastewater-Impacted Drinking Water Supplies” proves what we already knew more than three years ago: When you send frack wastewater untreated, or lightly treated, to a municipal sewage treatment plant–the plant can’t get the residual water clean enough to not cause problems down river. Back in 2011, then-PA DEP Sec. Michael Krancer ended the practice of municipal treatment plants without special equipment from processing frack wastewater (see 
This is a very important story that MDN has been following for more than two years. In June 2012, MDN reported the launch “out of nowhere” of a study by U.S. Dept. of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to test whether or not faults, or large cracks that sometimes exist through multiple rock layers, can create a pathway for hydraulic fracturing fluids to migrate to aquifers (see 
Another new “study” and already the headlines are blaring. A research team led by Ohio State University and composed of researchers at Duke, Stanford, Dartmouth, and the University of Rochester have just published their findings that methane migrates from some shale wells into local water wells. It certainly doesn’t sound like earth-shattering news, but the headlines across the country range from “Bad fracking wells taint water, scientists find” (Sacramento Bee) to “Weak wells not fracking caused US gas leaks into water” (BBC). The media has picked up on this latest study and, depending on the view of the reporter, has spun it to either say fracking is the culprit, or fracking isn’t the culprit–and just about everything in between. Once again MDN will break it down for you and tell you what the study really says. And, we have a copy of the published findings (embedded below) so you can read it for yourself and make up your own mind…