http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/03/07/2902435/state-regulators-say-driller-not.html
Texas Railroad Commision hearing examiners declared that two Barnett Shale natural gas wells were not the soure of methane gas contamination of residential water wells in Parker County. These examiners believe that the source of the contamination is from a much shallower gas-bearing formation than the Barnett Shale, which is located more than a mile below ground level. The Railroad Commissioners are trying to find wells that are not contaminated so they can focus on other wells that are more dangerous. All these contaminations deal with methane, the primary ingredient in natural gas. All researchers hired by the EPA found the same results as the examiners. This result was that the contamination of the water wells was caused by methane. Since there is a scarce amount of uncontaminated water in these wells, the supply of clean water will decrease, therefore, the price of the water is going to increase as well as the demand. Clean water is a necessity in everyday life. We use water for showers, nutrition, hydration, etc. which creates a high demand for this product. Without this product, a catastrophe will evolve and slow down our economy well by well.
4 comments:
Do you believe the government should put some environmental regulations on these wells? If so, what kind? How would these impact the economy?
Environmental regulations might help this contamination stop but it also might slow people when they're trying to get the water. Since the well is a necessity, many things will be affected by this new regulation. Most environmental regulations consist of monitoring the product that is being contaminated.
This is scary to think that fresh water is becoming scarce. Like you said, Taylor, fresh water is a necessity for us in our daily lives. I can't imagine how much more my dad will complain about the water bill being too high. The government should ensure that the main wells are not within a certain proximity of natural gas drilling sites.
I would have though that we would have some way to keep the water wells from being conatimated by the natural gas by now. I don't know if this is a common problem, but it seems like a very important problem, since water is a neccessity for life. Hopefully we can create some piece of technology that could help keep methane gas from contaminating our water supply.
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