By Lee Stanish, Stephen Osborn
Can microorganisms help protect our groundwater from contamination by hydraulic fracturing?
There is growing concern over the safety of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, to extract natural gas. However, the risks to groundwater quality are not clear, and we often lack baseline data or monitoring schemes to protect all groundwater supplies. The goal of this study is to determine if microscopic organisms (microbes) can be used to trace methane contamination in groundwater from natural gas extraction activities.
