A revolutionary groundwater quality study provides new evidence that ‘fracking’ operations are safe to nearby water sources. This piece presents the opinions of the author. It does not necessarily reflect the views of Rigzone. A revolutionary study of groundwater quality in the Ohio Middle Ordovician Utica Shale hydraulic fracturing play provides new evidence that “fracking” operations are safe to nearby water sources. The study found that methane concentrations in the studied water supply did not increase over a period of four years, and the methane present was from plants, not fossil fuels — even while more than two thousand new horizontal wells were drilled in the region. Reached for comment, Professor Amy Townsend-Small, one of the study’s authors, emphasized that her study analyzed many water samples over “a long time series of fracking activity.” She added that “most studies before mine only sampled once.” In other words, this rigorous […]