BASELINE WATER CHEMISTRY ASSESSMENT OF LITTLE FISHING CREEK, COLUMBIA COUNTY, PA, PRECEDING FRACKING OF MARCELLUS SHALE

We sampled the tributaries of Little Fishing Creek in State Game Lands 13 in Columbia County, PA, to obtain baseline water chemistry. This area is the upper watershed for the water supply of Bloomsburg, PA, and is also close to many sites permitted for Marcellus Shale Gas production. This work provides chemical information to support biofilm and invertebrate studies as well as provide background chemistry to assess effects of drilling for Marcellus Shale. Samples were collected from 14 sites on June 10, 2011. The samples collected were from 3 tributary systems: Hemlock Run (Sites 1-6), Painter Run (Sites 7-9) and Heberly Run (Sites 10-14). Temperature, pH, DO and conductivity were measured in situ using handheld meters. Turbidity analyses were performed on each raw sample, and acidity and alkalinity analyses were performed on filtered (GFF, effective pore size 0.7µm) samples on site. Subsamples were also collected and preserved for later analysis in the lab for anions, cations and metals. Thus far, samples have been analyzed for cations (sodium, potassium, lithium, ammonium, calcium, magnesium, barium and strontium) and anions (fluoride, chloride, bromide, nitrite, nitrate, sulfate and phosphate) utilizing ion chromatography. Samples will be reanalyzed using our brand new Lehman Profile ICP-OES to verify the barium and strontium concentrations and to determine other metal concentrations once the instrument is operational. Water from all sites was pristine, with slight variations in conductivity, alkalinity and acidity. Concentrations of chloride (0-2 ppm), barium (0-2 ppm) and strontium (0-0.3 ppm), all considered good tracers for frac water, were quite low. Thus, future contamination by frac water should be easily detected.