Natural gas speed-bump: hydraulic fracturing may be polluting groundwater

By Money Matters Editors

Not so fast regarding shale gas or ‘unconventional gas.’ Accessing the potentially plentiful, domestic energy source has encountered a obstacle: it may be contaminating wells and groundwater, The New York Times reported.

The new techniques used to access the gas – one major techniques is called hydraulic fracturing – are causing environmental problems, The Times said. So far, the incidence of groundwater contamination is thin, but more-thorough government checks may turn up many more problems.

Natural gas companies acknowledge the validity of some concerns, The Times added, but they argue that their technology remains fundamentally safe. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is investigating various contaminated wells and sites.

If hydraulic fracturing is contaminating wells and groundwater, that would be a huge setback for the natural gas sector. No natural gas site is worth contaminating groundwater.

Hopefully, government regulators and industry professionals will be able to determine how to safely drill for the previously-untapped gas supplies. New natural gas drilling and related technology has the potential to create an enormous, cleaner, domestic, comparatively-cheap energy source, but no natural gas site is worth contaminating wells or other ground water supplies.

There is a large upside potential for natural gas: if proven to be safe, the aforementioned drilling techniques could increase the supply of natural gas reserves in the United States by 35% or even considerably higher. Natural gas could power fleets of buses, trucks, vans, and eventually, many cars, along with powering the nation’s electric generation plants…if it is groundwater safe. Stay tuned.