Methane On Tap: Study Links Pollution To Gas Drilling

Article URL: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/natural-gas-drilling-linked-to-methane-in-water

           A team of researchers have proved that methane has escaped into drinking water in areas where shale gas drilling is underway. Shale gas is natural gas that is produced from the metamorphic rock, Shale. Scientists from Duke University sampled 60 private water wells from the northeastern part of Pennsylvania. They checked the wells here because this is one of the places where hydraulic fracturing, sometimes called “fracking,” is used to extract affluent deposits of natural gas from shale rocks. Hydraulic fracturing is the most popular way to extract natural gas from wells in the United States. It involves pumping millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals underground. This breaks apart the rock, therefore, releasing the natural gas. As far away as 3,200 feet, which is 1 kilometer, of an active drilling site, these scientists found water that was so contaminated, that it could be lit on fire (in some cases). The water found in well water near active drilling sites was, on average, seventeen times higher than the levels found in water wells farther away.

I thought this article was very intriguing and informative, but you may be wondering why methane is dangerous and how it can hurt you. When methane is airborne, it is very dangerous, and can even kill you. When you breathe it in, it displaces the oxygen in your body, causing it to become disoriented. It’s almost like your body becomes intoxicated. The person will become lethargic and eventually die of oxygen deprivation. When you ingest methane, and it goes into your stomach, it can cause all kinds of problems, like causing the lining of your stomach to erode. In my opinion, there needs to be something done about this shale rock drilling, because this could really affect the health of the people who have a water well and that are near a drilling site. One solution could be doing the drilling farther away from residential areas. Another solution could be providing residents with water wells with other ways to get water. That way, their water would not get contaminated. One more solution could be stopping this shale rock drilling all together.