New Report Finds Little Fracking Pollution in Monongahela River

MORGANTOWN - A new report from the U.S. Geological Survey shows that changes in the quality of water in the Monongahela River are minimal, despite 8 years of steady oil and gas drilling in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Most contaminants found in groundwater during this survey were attributed to coal mining, not gas extraction. According to a local expert, that has been the trend since close monitoring of the Monongahela River began in 2009.

“People jump to the assumption that the problem was with the gas industry, and they may have had perfectly good reasons to think that, but when we started monitoring the river in July of 2009, we very quickly found out that a lot of the salts are the sort of things you’d find out of coal mine drainage,” said Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute.

Read the full article on the WBOY website.