{"id":1454,"date":"2010-10-12T11:21:29","date_gmt":"2010-10-12T15:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=1454"},"modified":"2010-10-12T11:21:29","modified_gmt":"2010-10-12T15:21:29","slug":"more-research-urged-on-marcellus-drilling-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=1454","title":{"rendered":"More Research Urged on Marcellus Drilling Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Marcellus<\/a>
Marcellus shale gas well in West Virginia (dep.wv.gov)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Academy of Natural Sciences<\/a> in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is calling for a comprehensive research plan that provides guidelines and an assessment tool for regulators and managers in order to minimize the environmental impact of Marcellus Shale gas drilling. Marcellus Shale<\/a> is a deep geological formation along the east coast of the United States with an estimated 14-year domestic supply of natural gas.<\/p>\n

Initial research by Academy scientists and University of Pennsylvania graduate student Frank Anderson show the environmental impact of drilling may be directly related to the amount of drilling in a specific area, known as the density of drilling. Studies were conducted this summer of nine small watersheds in northeastern Pennsylvania -\u2014 three in which there had been no drilling, three in which there had been some drilling and three in which there had been a high density of drilling. At each site, they tested the water, and the numbers of certain sensitive insects and salamanders. The presence of salamanders is particularly important ecological early-warning signal, since amphibians are especially vulnerable to changes in the environment.<\/p>\n

The results indicate that for each of the measures, there was a significant difference between high-density drilling locations and locations with no drilling or less drilling. The studies showed that water conductivity — which indicates the level of contamination — was almost twice as high in the high density sites as the other sites, and the number of both sensitive insects and salamanders were reduced by 25 percent.<\/p>\n

David Velinsky, vice president of the Academy’s environmental research center, says the data are preliminary and that a larger, more comprehensive study must be done before definitive conclusions can be drawn. “There is very little information available as to the impacts of long-term exposure of a watershed to Marcellus Shale drilling activities,” says Velinsky in a press statement<\/a>, adding “nor do we know if there is a cumulative impact of drilling activity on the ecosystem services of a small watershed.”<\/p>\n

The Academy has applied to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Growing Greener Program to fund more comprehensive research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is calling for a comprehensive research plan that provides guidelines and an assessment tool for regulators and managers in order to minimize the environmental impact of Marcellus Shale gas drilling. Marcellus Shale is a deep geological formation along the east coast of the United States with an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[68,64,105],"class_list":["post-1454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regulations","tag-energy","tag-life-sciences","tag-physical-sciences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1454"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1458,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454\/revisions\/1458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}