Water Quality Testing
Can drilling operations in your area have an adverse effect on your water quality? When and how should you sample your water to determine if it is being affected? What tests should be done on your water? These are great questions.
If you are concerned about contamination on your property and, more specifically, in your well, you can take precautionary steps by having your water tested by a certified laboratory specializing in water analysis. A certified laboratory is inspected, or audited by a state agency. You can obtain a list of accredited laboratories in your area by contacting the agency that oversees environmental matters in your state. In Ohio, it is the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. A certified laboratory will provide you the necessary documentation and bottles for the analysis. These documents are extremely important should an issue arise after the fact.
Now that you’ve selected the laboratory, contact them for sampling instructions, forms, bottles, and shipping instructions. Be sure to pay close attention to the instructions provided; any deviations from acceptable protocols can render your results invalid.
When should you sample? It is important to sample prior to any drilling operations, and then periodically thereafter, or whenever you have reason to suspect contamination. The reason you need to sample before drilling is to establish a baseline for water quality. If you don’t know the quality of your water before, you won’t be able to tell if anything has degraded your water quality.
How many samples should you collect? One is probably not enough. Water quality can change depending on the season, humidity, water level, and other factors. If you know of impending operations that might affect your water quality, collect several samples over a period of time to establish base for comparison. Then collect future samples to monitor ongoing water quality. Public water systems follow this same pattern of constant monitoring.
What tests should you run? The laboratory will be able to provide guidance on this. Depending on your budget and level of concern, you can choose to have many tests performed or just a few analytes. At a minimum, you should have your water tested for total dissolved solids, conductivity, and pH. Typically, these tests can be done for about $25 per sample. Significant increases in the levels of dissolved solids and conductivity could indicate potential problems.
It would be prudent to consider a little more extensive testing for the baseline testing. Alkalinity, acidity, sulfate, suspended solids, hardness, minerals, and heavy metals could be valuable information and provide more insight into your water quality over a period of time. You can expect to pay up to $250 for the entire gamut of tests.
Resources: Ohio Department of Natural Resources and Ohio EPA
Views: 220
Comment
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Comment by Nancy on June 23, 2011 at 3:48pm
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RE: Water
We are in Derry Twp., Pennsylvania where there is a gas well boom! Rex drilled several (maybe 5) shallow wells in 2008 and Williams is drilling deep wells here now (They have 4 or 5) with many more to come! All these wells, shallow and deep, are within a 1 -2 mile of radius of neighborhood homes. 1 shallow well drilled by Rex Energy in 2008 is judged by DEP to be defective. 1 Pre-drill water test was done before Rex did the shallow wells in 2008 and shows zero methane before gas drilling, however, now DEP says that one time test is not enough history to prove zero methane in the area and area residents are having a tough time proving their case because their problems did not start within the 6 months following installation of the shallow gas wells. I would say... if possible, see what an attorney can do to protect you from this situation. Get Several Pre-Drill Water Tests to provide history of your water quality...Specifically testing for gases, water flow rates, etc. and request and keep copies of everything! Expensive... YES, but so worth it if you have a problem. You CANNOT just drop off or mail a water sample to a lab, that kind of test will not prove anything. Water Samples must be done from an accredited water test facility. Homeowners of Derry Twp. depend on well water for their main water supply and now they have methane. Methane levels were high enough that water wells were vented, water buffaloes and bottled water were brought in. Since then these huge Methane Aerator systems requiring monthly maintenance were installed in basements and methane detectors have been supplied to affected homes by Rex Energy. City water is over a mile away and there has been no offer to hook up city water by anyone and local officials say there is no money in budgets to help.
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Get your water tested yourself. Expensive yes but then you won't be "out of luck" if something happens. Atlas has told us twice they wanted to test our well. Both times we told them yes with the stipulation that someone be home when they do so (a simple thing as we homeschool and there is someone home almost all the time). Well they never did when the DEP tested it after we had some turbidity problems they promised to send us the test results (five phone calls now six months + after being tested and still not results). In our case I now wish we had spent the $575 to have the water tested ourselves as we are now in limbo. It is now tooo late to do anything and we will probably put in a large holding tank just to be safe.
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Comment by Brian Oram, PG on March 18, 2011 at 10:39am
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I have lots of powerpoint presentations (pdf) files at
http://www.water-research.net/powerpoint/index.htm
Testing Suggestions for PA - We do not conduct the testing - Methane is critical because the most common problem is gas migration.
http://wilkes.edu/pages/4198.asp
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Homeowners, like most people, are very cost-conscious, sometimes finding the cost of a total coliform test objectionable. The question perhaps comes down to which tests provide the "greatest return on investment" and then prioritize from there. Methane is certainly a good addition to the list, and I would include that as well.
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Personally and professionally I would select a wider set of tests and the testing needs to include at least methane. For a short list of recommended parameters and a free booklet on drinking water and water quality. Go to
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