Crucial Water Tests – Act Before Drilling Comes to Your Community
In light of water contamination in Dimock, PA, and other locations, a carefully coordinated water testing program is crucial if fracking will be coming to your community. This important project will be an ongoing program to monitor drilling activity, which is mostly unregulated. Please be advised that drilling companies operate with exemptions to all major federal environmental protections. As a result, your present water supply could be endangered. If you wish to protect your private source of pure water – you must act promptly to establish a baseline reading, before drilling begins.
In Pennsylvania, the testing must be conducted by a PA-certified and reliable laboratory that maintains a “chain of custody” – so that the results are admissible in court if legal action becomes necessary. All test results are highly confidential. Cost packages and multi-home discounts can be arranged.
DCS’ RECOMMENDED WATER TESTS CHART as of January 2010
The prices below are estimates. Test prices do not include collection charges.
Please be aware that test findings are admissible in court only when the water samples for testing are obtained by laboratory personnel. There is a fee for laboratory personnel to come and collect water samples. The costs depends upon the distance that must be traveled. Several households may elect to have their water samples collected on the same day, thereby spreading the cost among them.
Click on each chart for larger view.
EXPLANATION OF TERMS
* VALUE. Each test has been assigned a value. Value states the importance of a test for establishing a base line profile before drilling and fracking has begun.
E = Essential test
O = Optional tests. Optional if budget is an issue. The tests for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and oil and grease are considered optional because even if these contaminants are present, there is a good chance their concentrations will be lower than the detection limits of the tests. VOC testing is recommended if diesel fuel is suspected in the fracturing fluid.
M = Monitoring test. After a complete baseline is established, monitoring tests can be used to check for evidence of possible contamination. The landowner can collect samples himself. An increase over baseline on any monitoring test is a “red flag” for possible contamination. Then full professional testing should be conducted.
M, F = Monitoring tests the landowner can perform himself in the field
SOURCES FOR DCS’ WATER TESTS CHART
This list of recommended tests is based on their appearance on all or any of the following as determined by DCS with the help from experts:
a. Test results from waste water at Dimmock after fracturing began and the aquifer was contaminated
b. The list ordered by the DEP to be tested in the Waste Water Treatment Plants along the Monongahela River in 2008 when contamination of the river from gas drilling waste water became obvious.
c. Recommendations for water testing and monitoring from Pocono Environmental Laboratories, LLC.
d. Penn State recommended water test items.
e. Community Science Institute, a NY state not-for-profit testing laboratory, which advises anyone in an area where there’s drilling to test all the groundwater, springs, ponds and streams on their property.
THIS CHART IS SUBJECT TO REVISION WITHOUT NOTICE
EXAMPLE of a WATER TEST SET
The water test choices of householders in one neighborhood included the following set of tests from DCS’ Recommended Water Tests Chart of 6/2009.
Click on chart for larger view.
Please be aware that test findings are admissible in court only when the water samples for testing are obtained by laboratory personnel. There is a fee for laboratory personnel to come and collect water samples. The costs depends upon the distance that must be traveled. Several households may elect to have their water samples collected on the same day, thereby spreading the cost among them.
