Comment

Comment by Brian Oram, PG on September 11, 2010 at 11:37am

Comment to Mike - I work at Wilkes University and I would be happy to come to a program to help citizens understand the testing results.

Comment by Brian Oram, PG on August 21, 2010 at 10:18am

Kyle - I would agree- The listing of recommended parameters are for citizens outside of the 1000 foot zone. If you are within a 1000 feet, I would probably add a few more parameters. Going 1-mile may be warranted if you are along a major roadway, along a horizontal leg, or near a secondary activity.

Thanks

Brian

Comment by Larry on August 20, 2010 at 6:37pm

Brian,
Thanks for the info and the links. I belive every landowner who has there own water needs this info. I know I sure do.
Larry

Comment by Kyle Gallagher on August 19, 2010 at 10:09am

rfs, you are certainly correct. A property owner needs to have a baseline to compare to in the future (and yes that can protect the gas/energy company), if/when a property is altered within the subsurface or a change occurs within the groundwater supplying the property. Please keep in mind the radius needed to comply with regulations is not an exact science at 1,000 feet. If my well were within a mile of active drilling I would be testing it.

Comment by Robin Fehrenbach Scala on August 19, 2010 at 8:24am

The way I see it, the most important part in this equation is to HAVE THE WATER TESTED BEFORE any drilling takes place. Regardless of whether the average person can understand the test initially, unless you have that pre-drilling test you have nothing.
Most of the leases signed in the last year or two now require water testing for properties within a certain radius of a well site, and these tests are to be paid for by the gas company. This is as much for their protection as for ours. After all, no company wants to be blamed for problem water if that condition existed prior to the work.
Thanks for the information, Brian. Many people are concerned with this issue and should make use of this.

Comment by Brian Oram, PG on August 18, 2010 at 11:33pm

Understanding the results - go to http://www.wilkes.edu/water
Free Publication - Also - the interpretation of the results should come from a good consultant. If not I conduct training and outreach to help citizens understand and interpret results.

Regarding the other post about hiring a lab for baseline - some of our local labs have very good and quality technicians that can meet many general needs. This is really laboratory dependent. In addition many labs have licensed water treatment and wastewater treatment plant operators. They may not have the background of a geologist - but they should stand up to cross examination and properly collect the sample.

Also note - If the local data is showing nitrate-N at 1 mg NO3-N/L - it would be advisable to add Nitrite - mg NO2-N/L to the baseline assessment.

Comment by Kyle Gallagher on August 18, 2010 at 2:25pm

You should hire a private consultant that will walk you through the process in the beginning and provide you the information you need to protect your property (groundwater and well). This will also provide you a good baseline of analytical results moving forward.

Please do not hire an independant laboratory to complete testing on your well.

Comment by Mike Kaschak on August 18, 2010 at 12:58am

Sounds good, but all the testing in the world will not help if one cannot understand
the results. What we need is a class to present how results are interpreted, or several
spread out across areas or counties.

Mike