UTA Study Finds Contaminants In Ground Water Near Gas Wells by Jason Allen, August 5, 2013, CBS Local
High levels of contaminants, including arsenic are present, according to a University of Texas at Arlington study, in private water wells near gas operations. The study is one of the first water quality studies completed in North Texas since gas drilling expanded. The study however, doesn’t say that hydraulic fracturing contaminated groundwater. But it does show that heavy metals are present in higher concentrations near natural gas wells in the Barnett Shale. … A third of the wells had arsenic present at unsafe levels in the water. Levels were at their highest at wells within a kilometer of active gas operations. “If I was one of the well owners that had arsenic levels, 16 times the safe level, we did find one sample that high, naturally that shouldn’t be going on in this aquifer,” said another author of the study, Brian Fontenot.
“We don’t have a smoking gun. Everyone wants to have a smoking gun on an issue like this, and it’s just too complex.” [Emphasis added]
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