WATER QUALITY ANALYSIS OF FISHING CREEK; HAS FRACKING IMPACTED BLOOMSBURG’S WATER SUPPLY?

Bloomsburg’s water supply originates from the foothills of Sullivan County through various tributaries and creeks located in State Game Lands Number 13. These waterways form the headwaters in Fishing Creek. Elk Run Hunting Club Pad 1 9H is a producing shale gas well that was fracked in early 2013 and started producing in December. It is located in the northern reaches of State Game Lands 13 on top of the plateau from which these headwaters flow. In 2010 we took samples from East and West branches of Fishing Creek, tributaries to the West Branch: Hemlock Run, Painters Run, and Elk Run, and tributaries to the East Branch: Heberly Run and Lead Run. This summer we repeated the study to determine if the new pad had any long term effects on water quality for the town of Bloomsburg. The first trip (16 June) we did most of the original sites eliminating Heberly Run. The second trip (25 June) with the Rier group, samples were taken at Kocher Park near Bloomsburg. On our third trip (7 July) further samples on the western reaches of the West Branch were obtained adding a Slip Run sample. In all studies, samples were tested in situ for pH, conductivity, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen. Filtered sub-samples (0.45 µm GFF) were analyzed for total alkalinity and acidity. Further filtered sub-samples were collected and frozen for simple anion and cation analyses, while both filtered and unfiltered acidified sub-samples were stored at 4^oC and heavy metal analysis, specifically Al, Ba, Cr, As, Fe, Cd, Mn, Ni, Zn, Cu, and Pb. Acidity and alkalinity were low over the range of sites studied. Acidity values were between 3.5 and 6.8 ppm as CaCO₃. Alkalinity values were between 2.0 and 7.5 ppm as CaCO₃. West Branch pH values ranged from 6.4 to 6.9 while the more limited East Branch samples had very low pH values (4.38) near Lead Run. Total metal concentrations were below the detectable limits (ICP-OES) for samples obtained on the first trip which would show input from Elk Run and the well. After flowing through Columbia County Fishing Creek samples at Kocher Park had measureable Al (31.1 ppb), Ba (21.1 ppb), and Fe (33.1 ppb).