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writing, the EPA is in the midst of a major national study on the environmental im-
pact of the drilling technique and will publish a draft report in 2014—though it has
warned that its final results will not be made public until 2016, President Obama's
last full year in office. 33
What Is Methane Migration?
As we've seen, methane is the main component of natural gas, and it has a climate-
changing potential 20 times greater than carbon dioxide when measured over a
100-year period. While methane is not toxic, if allowed to concentrate in an en-
closed space it carries a high risk of combustion.
Hydrofracking opponents have been galvanized by suspicions that methane can
migrate from wells into underground aquifers and water wells, and then into the at-
mosphere. They suspect that cement well casings are not always sound, and worry
that groundwater quality is diminished by the gas. There have been a number of
documented cases of methane migration. As early as 1987, the EPA reported that
fluid from a gas well hydrofracked in Jackson County, West Virginia, contamin-
ated a private well in 1984. 34 But the most famous case centers on the Appalachian
town of Dimock, Pennsylvania (pop. 1,500). In 2006, a cadre of “landmen” ap-
peared in Dimock and quickly convinced residents to sell their mineral rights for
$25 an acre. (Similar deals in neighboring towns would later cost $4,000-$5,000
an acre.) 35 Two years later, the landscape was dotted by drilling towers and hydro-
fracking equipment, and soon Dimock was home to some of the most productive
gas wells in the state. But residents' drinking supplies turned brown or orange, the
water smelled sulfurous, and in at least one case methane built up in a private water
well and exploded. When tested, local water showed dangerous levels of methane,
iron, and aluminum. 36 Pets and farm animals shed hair. Sores appeared on the legs
of children, and adults suffered from ringing headaches. 37
The press took note, and Dimock became known as “ground zero” in the dispute
over the safety of hydraulic fracturing. 38 The most notorious scene in the docu-
mentary film GasLand shows a Colorado man lighting his tap water on fire. It is
a startling sight, and activists insist that it demonstrates how methane can migrate
from hydrofracked wells into peoples' drinking supplies in places like Dimock.
The industry disputes this, however, and says that naturally occurring (or “biogen-
ic”) methane had infiltrated Dimock's water long before the frackers arrived. The
“flaming water” scene in GasLand , they say, is merely a parlor trick used to scare
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