Denver-Julesburg Basin groundwater not contaminated by fracking: study

摘要

A new study focused on methane contamination of groundwater in Colorado’s Denver-Julesburg Basin discovered no evidence of horizontal drilling or hydraulic fracturing leading to higher rates of contamination. The study, released July 11 by researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder, analyzed 25 years of data and records maintained by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Committee (COGCC), a state regulatory body, to determine the sources and occurrence rate of methane and other gases seeping into groundwater supplies. “The ability to do this kind of far-reaching impact study using public domain data is key,” said Owen Sherwood, lead author of the new research and a research associate with the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research at CU-Boulder. “This study highlights the immense value of a large, continuously updated and publicly accessible geochemical database maintained by a regulatory agency.”