{"id":37062,"date":"2014-05-30T11:19:29","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T16:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=37062"},"modified":"2014-05-30T12:21:09","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T17:21:09","slug":"regulators-close-case-on-flaming-texas-water-researcher-says-not-so-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/05\/30\/regulators-close-case-on-flaming-texas-water-researcher-says-not-so-fast\/","title":{"rendered":"Regulators Close Case on Flaming Texas Water, Researcher Says Not So Fast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dfi22e8UQYc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The growing presence of methane in the water wells of a suburban Dallas community cannot be linked to nearby drilling activity even though methane levels have risen in several wells in the area since drilling began, according to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/1175488-water-well-complaint-investigation-report-5-23.html\"> a report<\/a> released by the state\u2019s oil and gas regulator. But other scientists who study the issue are not so sure there is no link to drilling.<\/p>\n<p>The report released last week by <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/tag\/railroad-commission-of-texas\/\">the Railroad Commission of Texas<\/a> says it found no evidence that elevated levels of methane in the water or the Parker county housing development &#8216;Silverado on the Brazos&#8217; is caused by gas drilling operations. The report also says further investigation\u00a0into a potential link\u00a0&#8220;is not planned at this time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was surprised that the commission isn\u2019t planning to do some more testing,&#8221; Rob Jackson, professor of Earth Sciences at Stanford University who is also studying the issue, says.\u00a0&#8220;Their own data found that five of eight water wells had increasing methane concentration through time. That alone seems like enough reason to follow up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jackson is planning to publish his own findings on the region\u2019s water. Another study by former EPA scientist Geoffrey Thyne indicates the methane <a href=\"http:\/\/www.weatherforddemocrat.com\/newstoppers\/x1782770756\/Water-contamination-remains\">is linked<\/a> to drilling, though Range Resources, the drilling company that owns nearby drilling wells has dismissed the scientists findings, and says the methane <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/pennsylvania\/tag\/methane-migration\/\">is naturally occurring<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->But continued uncertainty over the source of the methane makes Jackson believe the case deserves further research.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For some of these houses the amount of methane in the water is very high,&#8221; he says. &#8220;I think the study shows methane increasing, and also ethane and propane.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s the Railroad Commission&#8217;s job to see this to the end, to get to the bottom of what&#8217;s happened there and protect the homeowners,&#8221; he adds.<\/p>\n<p>In its report, the Railroad Commission says it\u2019s aware of other studies, presumably in reference to Jackson&#8217;s work, and \u201cwelcomes the opportunity to review them.\u201d In the meantime, the report suggests that residents concerned with methane \u201cproperly ventilate and aerate their water systems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read the full report:<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-documentcloud\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><div class=\"DC-embed DC-embed-document DV-container\"> <div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:129.41176470588235%;height:0;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;\"> <iframe src=\"\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/1175488-water-well-complaint-investigation-report-5-23.html?embed=true&amp;responsive=false&amp;sidebar=false\" title=\"Water Well Complaint Investigation Report 5 23 2014 (2) (Hosted by DocumentCloud)\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-forms\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:1px solid #aaa;border-bottom:0;box-sizing:border-box;\"><\/iframe> <\/div> <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The growing presence of methane in the water wells of a suburban Dallas community cannot be linked to nearby drilling activity even though methane levels have risen in several wells in the area since drilling began, according to a report released by the state\u2019s oil and gas regulator. But other scientists who study the issue [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[12,15,22,50],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37062"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37062"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37093,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37062\/revisions\/37093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}