Hydraulic fracturing—fracking—for natural gas has revolutionized
the energy industry in many places, including the United States.
The pushback over contamination concerns has been a prevailing
storyline in the public eye. This possibility has been viewed as
unlikely, though, as the shale gas layers being fracked are
typically several thousand feet deeper than any aquifers used
for drinking water. Fractures would have to propagate tremendous
distances, through a number of confining layers, to create a
pathway for contamination. The physics required to make
something like that happen just aren’t there. In nature,
however, it’s usually true that to consider something to be
impossible is to be disappointed. And so the nagging question
remained: what if there are already some pathways present
through those confining layers? In 2011, researchers from Duke
University published results (open access) showing a correlation
between methane concentrations in private water wells and
proximity to local natural gas producti