Penn State University just released the results of a groundwater study of Bradford County, Pennsylvania and it’ll only give the DRBC more good news heartburn.

The timing couldn’t be more perfect. The Pennsylvania House State Government Committee hearing on Monday saw minority party members from Southeast Pennsylvania challenge the SRBC finding of “no discernible impact” from natural gas development on water quality. They brought up a talking point from Tracy Carluuccio at the Delaware Riverkeeper suggesting a USGS study contradicted that finding. As I noted here, it was USGS BS from the mouth of the Povertykeeper. The rebuttal, though it wasn’t necessarily intended as such, came quickly from a Penn State University research story by Matthew Carroll at Penn State News, which we offer below.

Here’s what Penn State had to say (emphasis added):

A new study of groundwater in a rural Pennsylvania county shows only rare instances of possible gas contamination amid an overall trend of improving water quality despite heavy Marcellus Shale development.

By investigating data from gas companies, the state, and the U.S. Geological Survey, researchers saw possible contamination by natural gas near no more than seven out of 1,385 shale wells studied in heavily drilled Bradford County. The rest of the water chemistry data highlighted that groundwater had either improved or remained level from samples taken prior to the 1990s.

Read more:

http://naturalgasnow.org/bad-news-drbc-bradford-county-groundwater-quality-just-fine/