High levels of arsenic found in wells near Barnett Shale fracking sites; more research said needed

"A study by researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington found elevated levels of arsenic and other heavy metals in groundwater near natural gas fracking sites in Texas' Barnett Shale," Theodoric Meyer reports for ProPublica. Brian Fontenot, the paper’s lead author, told Meyer, "We found that there were actually quite a few examples of elevated constituents, such as heavy metals, the main players being arsenic, selenium and strontium. And we found each of those metals at levels that are above EPA's maximum contaminate limit for drinking water." Map: The Barnett Shale region covers 13 counties in Texas, including Dallas and Tarrant (Fort Worth).

While the heavy metals can occur naturally in groundwater in the region, Fontenot told Meyer that the levels they found were unusual and not natural. "These really high levels differ from what the groundwater used to be like before fracking came in. And when you look at the location of the natural gas wells, you find that any time you have water wells that exceed the maximum contaminate limit for any of these heavy metals, they are within about three kilometers of a natural gas well," Fontenot said. "We also found a few samples that had measurable levels of methanol and ethanol. So for us to be able to actually randomly take a grab sample and detect detectable methanol and ethanol -- that implies that there may be a continuous source of this."

Despite the findings, Fontenot said the research was inconclusive. He told Meyer, "We noticed that when you're closer to a well, you're more likely to have a problem, and that today's samples have problems, while yesterday's samples before the fracking showed up did not. So we think that the strongest argument we can say is that this needs more research." (Read more)