IDENTIFYING WATER QUALITY IMPACTS RELATED TO SHALE GAS DRILLING IN NORTHERN WEST VIRGINIA

Hydraulic fracturing for shale gas in the state of West Virginia has expanded rapidly over the last decade. While this expansion has benefited the local economy, it has also created concern about potential environmental effects. A long history of fossil fuel development has negatively impacted water quality in many parts of the state. This has buoyed fears that shale gas drilling may be exacerbating the problem, particularly in northern West Virginia where shale gas wells are concentrated. In order to understand how the expansion of hydraulic fracturing operations has affected water quality, it is important to examine long temporal records of water chemistry data. To this end, a preliminary analysis is being conducted using pre-existing surface water quality data from 14 northern West Virginia counties collected by several federal, state, and local sources. Over 1.3 million stream sampling records are being aggregated by 12-digit hydrologic unit code watersheds. Pre- and post-drilling water quality in each watershed will be compared using Kruskal-Wallis tests to identify catchments that may be affected by produced water contamination or increased sedimentation from well pad construction. This procedure will serve as a screening technique to locate areas that may benefit from a more robust analysis or future sampling to help understand the true nature of temporal water quality changes.