West Virginia Fracking Fouls Streams, But Not Aquifer: Study

Fracking in West Virginia has not contaminated groundwater, but frequent wastewater spills may have polluted some streams, a new peer-reviewed study from scientists at Duke University has found.

“We found no indication of groundwater contamination over the three-year course of our study,” Avner Vengosh, a professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, said in a statement upon the study’s release.

The study is unique in that it compares the exact same drinking water wells near unconventional gas sites both before and after fracking began. The study is also different in ...