<br>Sid Perkins A study of methane in drinking water near shale gas operations will provide ammu nition for

protesters. Richard B. Levine/NewscomA controversial method of extracting natural gas from s hale rock formations significantly increases methane concentrations in drinking water taken from wells nearby, suggests the latest study by US environmental sci entists. The findings come just as a moratorium on the practice in one US state is due to expire, and are likely to stoke the public debate. Injecting large quantities of water and other fluids to fracture deep rock forma tions to liberate the methane within a practice called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking has become economically viable only in the past decade or so. In that s hort time, it has gained popularity with natural-gas producers: in one county in Pennsylvania alone, approvals for fracking permits increased 27-fold between 20 07 and 2009. According to the US Energy Information Administration, in 2009, 63 billion cubic metres of gas were produced from deep shale formations. That had doubled by 201 0, and by 2035 fracking is projected to account for some 47% of US gas productio n. Contamination concern However, many homeowners in areas where fracking is common say the practice has tainted their drinking water, either with methane or with the waste water that i s produced by the process. Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1 today will give them further ammunition. Robert Jackson, a biogeochemist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, an d his colleagues measured the methane concentrations in 60 drinking-water wells in northeastern Pennsylvania and nearby areas of New York state. Dissolved metha ne concentrations in water from the 34 wells located more than 1 kilometre from fracking operations averaged about 1.1 milligrams of dissolved methane per litre . But in water taken from 26 wells within 1 km of one or more fracking operation s, methane concentrations averaged 19.2 mg l 1. Isotopic analyses of the carbon in that methane shows that the gas has the same signature as that being recovered from deep underground by fracking operations. Although methane concentrations in drinking water aren't regulated, says Jackson , the gas readily comes out of solution and is an asphyxiation and explosion haz ard. The US Department of the Interior recommends mitigating methane levels in w ater if concentrations reach 10 28 mg l 1. "We don't know the precise mechanism of how the gas is getting into the wells," says Jackson. The team suspects that the gas is leaking from the pipes that brin g methane to the surface, or is escaping the deep layers of fractured rock eithe r through fissures generated during the fracking process or through abandoned wa ter or gas wells. Fracking under scrutiny This study is the first to look at the extent of water contamination from fracki ng in a comprehensive, objective way, says Robert Howarth, a biogeochemist at Co rnell University in Ithaca, New York. "Data clearly show that water wells within 1 kilometre of active gas wells have a high probability of being contaminated w ith methane," he notes. This contamination, he contends, shows the need to reass ess the use of the technology. ADVERTISEMENT Late last year, David Paterson, then-governor of New York state, instituted a te

mporary moratorium on fracking operations that drill wells horizontally and inje ct more than 300,000 litres of fluid. Once the ban expires on 30 June, the state 's environmental conservation department will release the results of a study on the risks of fracking to air and water quality. With the public debate set to ramp up in New York state and elsewhere in the com ing months, the report by Jackson and his team "couldn't come at a more timely m oment", says William Schlesinger, a biogeochemist at the Cary Institute of Ecosy stem Studies in Millbrook, New York. "It's a nice piece of work, and it's too vi sible to overlook." References 1.Osborn, S. G., Vengosh, A., Warner, N. R. & Jackson, R. B. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA advance online publication (2011).<br> http://waterfilterhealth.info