If drilling for gas is going to happen in your area within the next 6 months, you need to get your water tested! Go to our Where is the Drilling Activity? page to help you determine when you should consider getting your water tested.
The State's position on well water contamination is: "it shall be presumed that a well operator is responsible for the pollution of a water supply that is within 1,000 feet of the oil or gas well, where the pollution occurred within six months after the completion of drilling or alteration of such well."
Because of presumed guilt within a 1,000 feet radius, it is in the best interest of gas drillers to establish a pre-drilling baseline of everyone's drinking water within that proximity. A representative from an independent, third-party water testing lab ought to come to your house and collect the sample in person. By all accounts, you should definitely allow the collection to take place because a refusual to do so could severely jeopardize any future claims against the driller. You should also request and receive a copy of the test results.
That being said, residents outside of the 1,000 feet radius and concerned residents within the radius might prefer to have their water tested by a lab of their choosing. There are two ways to go about this:
Andy Goldberg of Independent Water Testing - (800) 694-2683
http://independentwatertesting.com/
George Turner of GET Geological Consulting - (570) 836-1055
http://geturner.tripod.com/index.html
You should expect to spend $300 to $1,000 dollars on the test, depending on the number and type of compounds that you would like tested. Testing for total dissolved solids (TDS), barium, and chloride can indicate the presence of fracking chemicals, flowback water or other substances escaping from the Marcellus Shale formation. If you are willing to pay for a more comprehensive set of data, you can add tests for methane, iron, manganese, total organic carbon, and turbidity.
The importance of spending this kind of money on a water test is that it will hold up in court. A water sample that you collect yourself and send in to a lab is useful in cheaply monitoring the quality of your water, but a qualified professional needs to be hired if you hope to stand a chance in court should your well become polluted.
For more information please visit Penn State's Cooperative Extension website.
