Drinking water health standards comparison and chemical analysis of groundwater for 72 domestic wells in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, 2016

Clune, John W.; Cravotta, Charles A.

doi:10.3133/sir20185170

Cited by 12 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The chloride/bromide ratios for groundwater samples collected for this study generally are similar to those for groundwater samples collected and reported by the USGS for Sullivan County (Sloto, 2013), Pike County (Senior, 2014;, Wayne County (Senior and others, 2017), Lycoming County (Gross and Cravotta, 2017), and Bradford County (Clune and Cravotta, 2019). The regional, localized occurrence of groundwater throughout northeastern and northcentral Pennsylvania that has elevated chloride and chloride/bromide ratios that plot along the mixing curve for brine implies a natural origin for many of the observed chloride, bromide, methane, and associated constituents.…”

Section: Sodium Chloride and Bromide In Groundwatersupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Studies in Pike County and Sullivan County indicated few exceedances of the drinking water health standards, and samples that had elevated levels of pH and concentrations of methane commonly also showed higher concentrations of sodium, lithium, boron, fluoride, and bromide (Senior, 2009(Senior, , 2014Sloto, 2013;. Studies in Wayne County, Lycoming County, and Bradford County presented similar results but also included analyses of water samples for total coliform bacteria that indicated exceedances of the drinking water health standards; these studies also employed geochemical modeling techniques that offered further insight into the effect that water-rock reactions, topographic position, and pH have on the regional groundwater chemistry (Senior and others, 2017;Gross and Cravotta, 2017;Clune and Cravotta, 2019). Naturally occurring radioactivity is described in detail in previous reports on groundwater quality in Wayne, Pike, and Lycoming Counties in Pennsylvania (Senior and others, 2017;and Gross and Cravotta, 2017, respectively).…”

Section: Previous Investigationsmentioning

confidence: 91%

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Groundwater quality in relation to drinking water health standards and hydrogeologic and geochemical characteristics for 47 domestic wells in Potter County, Pennsylvania, 2017

Galeone¹,

Cravotta²,

Risser³

2020

Scientific Investigations Report

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Section: Sodium Chloride and Bromide In Groundwatersupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Previous Investigationsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Groundwater quality in relation to drinking water health standards and hydrogeologic and geochemical characteristics for 47 domestic wells in Potter County, Pennsylvania, 2017

Galeone¹,

Cravotta²,

Risser³

2020

Scientific Investigations Report

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“…Additionally, the 2016 sample near 052, which had non-impacted neighbors prior to the onset of UD (table S8), was flagged by the USGS for possible anthropogenic contamination due to the detection of man-made organic compounds and radioactive constituents. The agency, however, did not definitively attribute this contamination to UD [58].…”

Section: Vulnerability and Other Lines Of Inquiry About Ud Contaminationmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…For these samples, we analyzed violation records [56] for indications of nearby contaminant releases. We also examined past groundwater quality records near these sampling locations at three periods: 1980s [53], 2010s [57], and 2016 [58]. The 2010s data are 'pre-drill' records collected prior to the drilling of new UD wells to establish a baseline in case of future alleged impairment.…”

Section: Study Area Field Sampling and Related Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of groundwater well vulnerability to contamination through physics-informed machine learning

Soriano

Siegel

Johnson

et al. 2021

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Contamination from anthropogenic activities is a long-standing challenge to the sustainability of groundwater resources. Physically based (PB) models are often used in groundwater risk assessments, but their application to large scale problems requiring high spatial resolution remains computationally intractable. Machine learning (ML) models have emerged as an alternative to PB models in the era of big data, but the necessary number of observations may be impractical to obtain when events are rare, such as episodic groundwater contamination incidents. The current study employs metamodeling, a hybrid approach that combines the strengths of PB and ML models while addressing their respective limitations, to evaluate groundwater well vulnerability to contamination from unconventional oil and gas development (UD). We illustrate the approach in northeastern Pennsylvania, where intensive natural gas production from the Marcellus Shale overlaps with local community dependence on shallow aquifers. Metamodels were trained to classify vulnerability from predictors readily computable in a geographic information system. The trained metamodels exhibited high accuracy (average out-of-bag classification error <5%). A predictor combining information on topography, hydrology, and proximity to contaminant sources (inverse distance to nearest upgradient UD source) was found to be highly important for accurate metamodel predictions. Alongside violation reports and historical groundwater quality records, the predicted vulnerability provided critical insights for establishing the prevalence of UD contamination in 94 household wells that we sampled in 2018. While <10% of the sampled wells exhibited chemical signatures consistent with UD produced wastewaters, >60% were predicted to be in vulnerable locations, suggesting that future impacts are likely to occur with greater frequency if safeguards against contaminant releases are relaxed. Our results show that hybrid physics-informed ML offers a robust and scalable framework for assessing groundwater contamination risks.

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“…Indeed, geochemical investigations across the county provide limited indications of systemic groundwater quality impairment by UD thus far. A study of 72 domestic well samples from Bradford collected by the USGS in 2016 generally indicated that groundwater quality across the county met most EPA health-based standards for major ions, trace elements, nutrients, and volatile and other organic compounds (Clune & Cravotta, 2019). In addition, analysis of ~11,000 samples in the Shale Network database collected in the 2010s showed that groundwater quality in the county actually improved relative to pre-1990 levels (Wen et al, 2018).…”

Section: Well Vulnerability and Groundwater Quality Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating Domestic Well Vulnerability to Contamination From Unconventional Oil and Gas Development Sites

Soriano

Siegel

Gutchess

et al. 2020

Water Resources Research

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The rapid expansion of unconventional oil and gas development (UD), made possible by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, has triggered concerns over groundwater contamination and public health risks. To improve our understanding of the risks posed by UD, we develop a physically based, spatially explicit framework for evaluating groundwater well vulnerability to aqueous phase contaminants released from surface spills and leaks at UD well pad locations. The proposed framework utilizes the concept of capture probability and incorporates decision-relevant planning horizons and acceptable risks to support goal-oriented modeling for groundwater protection. We illustrate the approach in northeastern Pennsylvania, where a high intensity of UD activity overlaps with local dependence on domestic groundwater wells. Using two alternative models of the bedrock aquifer and a precautionary paradigm to integrate their results, we found that most domestic wells in the domain had low vulnerability as the extent of their modeled probabilistic capture zones were smaller than distances to the nearest existing UD well pad. We also found that simulated capture probability and vulnerability were most sensitive to the model parameters of matrix hydraulic conductivity, porosity, pumping rate, and the ratio of fracture to matrix conductivity. Our analysis demonstrated the potential inadequacy of current state-mandated setback distances that allow UD within the boundaries of delineated capture zones. The proposed framework, while limited to aqueous phase contamination, emphasizes the need to incorporate information on flow paths and transport timescales into policies aiming to protect groundwater from contamination by UD.

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Drinking water health standards comparison and chemical analysis of groundwater for 72 domestic wells in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, 2016

Cited by 12 publications

References 18 publications

Groundwater quality in relation to drinking water health standards and hydrogeologic and geochemical characteristics for 47 domestic wells in Potter County, Pennsylvania, 2017

Groundwater quality in relation to drinking water health standards and hydrogeologic and geochemical characteristics for 47 domestic wells in Potter County, Pennsylvania, 2017

Assessment of groundwater well vulnerability to contamination through physics-informed machine learning

Evaluating Domestic Well Vulnerability to Contamination From Unconventional Oil and Gas Development Sites

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