On the Green blog, Rachel Nuwer nicely summarizes the findings
of a new Duke University study finding signs that natural
geological pathways link deep briny fluids thousands of feet
beneath the surface in Pennsylvania gas country with some
shallow zones tapped for drinking water. The study should ease*
concerns that reports of briny water mixing with drinking water
have anything to do with gas drilling, including the process of
hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, used to release gas from deep
shale layers. The areas where water samples drawn from near-
surface layers had traces of the natural contaminants from the
deep shale layers showed no relationship to past or current gas
drilling activity, the researchers reported. [July 11, 3:07 p.m.
| Updated | There's a followup post greatly expanding on the
point explored at the asterisk here.] But the authors propose
that the presence of pathways linking the deep gas-bearing layer
called the Marcellus Shale and near-surface aquifers could pose
a drilling risk, althou