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Water Quality Assessment of Deer Lakes County Park Before, During and After Unconventional Shale Gas Drilling

2019
  • 0
    Citations
  • 603
    Usage
  • 0
    Captures
  • 4
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

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Most Recent Blog

Pennsylvania County Bans Fracking in Area Parks

Eight years after allowing a shale gas company to drill beneath Deer Lakes County Park for methane gas, the Pennsylvania county home to Pittsburgh has banned all industrial activity in the area’s eight other parks — despite a veto from the county executive. It’s the first such move at the county level in the state, one fracking opponents term a milestone in a state where the fracking industry almo

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Food & Water Watch Defends People and Planet in 2022

Photo © Ken Schles by Mia DiFelice With each passing year, the stakes rise higher for clean water, safe food, and a livable climate. But

Artifact Description

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, signed a lease to allow unconventional natural gas extraction from Marcellus Shale beneath Deer Lakes County Park in 2014. The park has three man-made lakes and four waterways that eventually flow into the Allegheny River. Drilling commenced in early 2016, and there are now five producing wells. The park has an extensive abandoned coal mine network and several abandoned oil and gas wells. Thus, an independent water quality study was undertaken beginning in July 2015. Samples from seven different sites in the park were used to establish a water quality baseline prior to the drilling. Monthly sampling continued through August 2017, with analytical parameters including conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen, anions, light hydrocarbons, and a suite of metals and metalloids. Detection of light hydrocarbons, surfactants, and other constituents in specific mass ratios suggest that water quality has been impacted by a combination of past and present extractive activities.

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