Good evening, and thank you for your inquiry. From what we have read, the types chemicals used in the fracking industry range from simple to extremely complex and vary from company to company as well as from well site to well site depending on what needs to happen in order to extract the natural gas from the ground.

With that said, no basic at-home test kit exists (that we know of) for detecting fracking compounds and chemicals.

Some water experts say that sudden shifts in basic water quality parameters such as pH, alkalinity, chlorides, TDS, heavy metals, and total hardness may indicate possible contamination of a well with fracking fluids or frack water... but to know shifts occur one must test on a regular or at least semi-regular basis and also, hopefully, have baseline readings recorded for all the water quality parameters before fracking or other drilling began.

To answer your question more directly, though, no, the COMPLETE Water Test Kit will not detect fracking chemicals.

When it comes to anything related to fracking, it seems as though no simple answers exist.

Why the concern?

By now pretty much everyone has seen the videos of people lighting their well water on fire and some of you may have even seen the video where a representative from a gas or oil drilling company took a drink from a glass that allegedly contained fluid used in hydraulic fracturing — to ‘prove’ that the stuff was harmless.

One side says fracking destroys water sources and the other says it does little, if any, harm to the environment… so who should the homeowner believe?

Our opinion…

Regardless of WHAT industrial activity takes place in the area of a private water well, be it fracking, coal mining, gold mining, oil drilling, or maybe even commercial farming, the responsibility for monitoring the water coming out of a private well falls on the shoulders of the well owner.

With that said, private water well owners need to watch the quality of their water and alert authorities when a noticeable change in water quality occurs — because rest assured the companies potentially responsible for changes in ground water quality will not say a word about potential problems until they get caught by the EPA or called out by the public.

Simple tests the public can perform…

Opponents of hydraulic fracturing have called for gas and oil companies to release the list of chemicals involved in hydraulic fracturing for a number of years. Now of COURSE not one single company (that we know of) has made that sort of information public… which leaves many folks wondering how they will know if fracking fluid or other byproducts of the oil and gas drilling industry have crept into their well water.

Since the average person does not have regular access to laboratory grade equipment or usually feel like spending hundreds of dollars each time they want to test their well water, we suggest using the following simple water tests as indicators for when a person may want to consider having their water checked by a certified water testing laboratory:

• Chlorides
   
• Heavy Metals
   
• Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)
   
• pH & Alkalinity

Drastic changes in the above water quality parameters may indicate that some sort of contamination of the well water source has occurred and that a well owner may want consider having a certified water testing laboratory perform a more thorough, complete analysis for contaminants not detectable using home water test kits.

Water pressure dropped at the fracking site and negatively interfered with the drilling process. Coincidentally, water pressure dropped for local residents and they also started noticing a milky appearance to the water coming out of their wells.

Related incidents or not related incidents?

Some argue that the two sets of events have nothing to do with one another and that both sets of wells suffered as a result of serious drought conditions rather than because the hydraulic fracturing activity required a large (several million gallons) amount of water.

Others argue that the hydraulic fracturing activity caused the aquifer level to drop by an estimated 11 feet, not the lack of rainfall. These same folks do not discredit the notion that drought conditions played a part, but they quickly reference other hydraulic fracturing sites where gas companies began drilling… and ran out of water.

Did you say millions of gallons of water?

Yes. It takes millions of gallons of water to perform hydraulic fracturing and typically that water will come from water wells drilled by the gas companies or from other local sources such as municipalities with pre-existing water wells supposedly large enough to bring up enough water to accommodate the drilling activity as well as their customer base.

Moral of the story?

As usual we suggest watching the activities of the drilling companies very closely. Their desire to extract natural gas from the ground seems to know no bounds… unless someone taps them on the shoulder and asks, “Um, excuse me. What exactly is it there that you are doing?”

For the details that sparked our decision to write this little blurb about hydraulic fracturing and its relationship with drinking water and the water in aquifers tapped by private wells, please refer to Residential Water Well Fails in Michigan After Fracking Begins Nearby.

To all those people we say, “Go ahead. Keep thinking this country will have safe, clean potable water forever. Ever notice a recurring theme in ‘futuristic’ movies? Civilizations in a good number of those movies seemed to have a limited supply of fresh water. Examples: Mad Max, Book of Eli and Waterworld (ironic, yes we know) just to name a few.”

Getting to the point, though, farmers in Kansas currently find their needs for water to irrigate their fields at odds with the needs of oil/gas companies looking to strike it rich using hydraulic fracturing in the shale formations deep below the Earth’s surface… because each fracking venture requires 2 million gallons of water.

Keep in mind that Kansas has just come off a very bad drought and municipalities in some parts of the State have already started putting water use restrictions in place. We have not even made it to the midpoint of June, mind you, so just think about how dire the farmers’ water needs may become a month from now if Mother Nature does not pull through with some wet weather.

If not carefully monitored the oil companies could very easily drain the region dry. Pun intended. Learn more about the battle between farmers and oil companies over water right in Kansas here.

Testing water near hydraulic fracturing

Unless you know the quality of your water before drilling starts, you will have one heck of a hard time proving that drilling caused a change in the quality of your water… so test your water for everything you can afford before the drilling starts!

Natural Contamination

Contamination of natural bodies of water (including lakes, streams, aquifers and groundwater) can have numerous characteristics and sources. While many believe only ‘big business’ causes water pollution, all humans and animals release waste products that eventually find their way into lakes, rivers, streams, oceans, etc.

Scientists refer to this occurrence as ‘nutrient loading’ and when it happens too often in one location nutrient loading may result in bacterial contamination that eventually becomes detrimental to the environment and harmful to humans who unknowingly consume the water.

Contaminants often included in the list of ‘natural’ contaminants include things such as coliform bacteria, nitrates, nitrites, etc.

Therefore, if your drinking water comes from the ground (i.e. a well) you may have ‘natural’ things to worry about… and even municipal (i.e city, town, etc.) water sources have problems from time to time. Need proof? Ever hear of things called boil water advisories?

Unnatural Contamination

This type of contamination typically comes from accidental or intentional dumping of foreign matter into or too close to a body of water either on the the surface or under the ground.

Common sources of groundwater and surface water contamination include improper disposal of industrial waste products, faulty septic tanks and waste water storage or processing equipment, landfills, pesticides and fertilizers.

Many experts believe the practice of hydraulic fracturing certainly belongs in the category of unnatural water contamination and pollution… and, of course, many other experts (who often work for or get funding from gas drilling companies) believe hydraulic fracturing poses no (or extremely limited) risks to the environment.

Thus far OUR opinion falls more in line with the folks who suspect that fracking (the nickname for hydraulic fracturing) may pose risks and that more research needs to get done before we turn the Marcellus Shale Formation under the United States into swiss cheese whose holes we filled with ‘questionable’ fluids containing a host of unknown compounds.

Moral of the Story?

You will NEVER know if your water contains unwanted contaminants UNTIL YOU GET IT TESTED and for that task you have several options: 1) Test for the basics yourself using a drinking water test kit; 2) Have a qualified drinking water laboratory test your water; or 3) test for the basics yourself with a water quality test kit and enlist the services of a qualified water testing lab from the list posted on the EPA’s Safe Water Web Site

Today’s question about well water testing and possible well water contamination by hydraulic fracturing came to us from a woman named ‘Terri’ in Pennsylvania who asked…

why is the cost so high to test water for fracking contamination? after the recent flooding it only cost $25.00 to see if the well water was safe to drink. is it best to have a local company test the water or should we send it to Penn State or out of state? how often after the drilling starts do you recommend water to be tested?

Thank you for this question, Terri, and we bet other folks facing the unwanted financial burden of paying for more ground/well water testing than the average homeowner with a well have wondered the exact same thing.

Well Water Testing (2 or 3 parameters)…

In our experience, well water testing that costs roughly $20 to $30 usually includes the following tests: Nitrates/Nitrites and Coliform Bacteria.

Some kits and marketed laboratory testing packages may include other tests, but not much more and definitely not nearly the number of tests included in the laboratory testing packages typically used to analyze water that may contain contamination resulting from hydraulic fracturing.

Testing for Fracking Fluid (potentially 100’s of parameters)…

From the very beginning companies that used hydraulic fracturing as a means of extracting natural gas from rock and shale formations deep in the Earth have kept the list of ingredients in their fracking fluids out of the public eye.

However, according to information posted on Wikipedia (10/28/11)…

“Chemical additives used in fracturing fluids typically make up less than 1% by weight of the total fluid. They are biocides, surfactants, adjusting viscosity, and emulsifiers. Many are used in household products such as cosmetics, lotions, soaps, detergents, furniture polishes, floor waxes, and paints.[33] Some are also used in food products. A list of the chemicals that have been used was published in a U.S. House of Representatives Report.[34] Some of the chemicals pose no known health hazards, some of the chemicals are known carcinogens, some are toxic, and the health hazards for the rest are unknown. The report does not include the concentration of each chemical used or the amount used.

A 2011 study identified 632 chemicals used in natural gas operations. Only 353 of these are well-described in the scientific literature; and of these, more than 75% could affect skin, eyes, respiratory and gastrointestinal systems; roughly 40-50% could affect the brain and nervous, immune and cardiovascular systems and the kidneys; 37% could affect the endocrine system; and 25% were carcinogens or mutagens. The study indicated possible long-term health effects that might not appear immediately. The study recommended full disclosure of all products used, along with extensive air and water monitoring near natural gas operations; it also recommended that fracking’s exemption from regulation under the US Safe Drinking Water Act be rescinded.[35]”

So as you can clearly see, the potential for harm befalling a person exposed to fracking chemicals could certainly clearly exist — even if it may take a while to happen through prolonged exposure to fracking chemicals in the air and/or in their drinking water.

With the number of chemicals and ‘other things’ possibly present in fracking fluid, and the mystery surrounding many of those additives true identities, responsible testing laboratories must use a shotgun approach when analyzing samples for the fracking fluid… because they have no solid idea of what exactly to look for.

The Best way to Test for Fracking Fluid?

Terri mentioned Penn State in her inquiry and at this point we feel the scientists at Penn State may very well have the best idea of what has transpired in that region due to their close proximity and the amount of time and resources that institution has dedicated to tracking the activities of gas drilling companies in the area.

Moral of the Story?

If companies intend to begin hydraulic fracturing in your area then you really ought to have the quality of your water tested before, during and after drilling.

If companies have already started drilling and you have not, yet, had a qualified water testing lab analyze your water, you really ought to have that testing done right away.

No matter what side of the fence you sit on, enough data exists out there to make even the most adamant proponent of natural gas drilling agree with the idea that water testing needs to take place before, during and after natural gas drilling — if for no other reason than to prove a problem does not exist.

Recently we came across the second portion of an article posted by the Penn State Cooperative Extension which gives some solid advice on the topic of private well testing, when and by whom it ought to get done.

Moral of the story?

Unless you have a baseline reading of, at the very least, basic water quality parameters before any drilling activity takes place, anything that shows up in your water after drilling starts could, as far as the gas company’s lawyers will say, have existed in the water before their client’s employees ever set foot on the property.

Also, the more thorough the analysis, the better. Spring for the most comprehensive water test you can afford because the more you know about your water before drilling takes place, the better your chances of convincing a Court of Law that a problem exists as a result of drilling later.

For those not familiar with fracking, the term refers to the act of using high powered pumping equipment to force water, sand and proprietary mixtures of chemicals deep into the Earth’s crust with extreme pressure in an attempt to literally shatter (fracture) formations of shale, a type of rock, and in doing so liberate natural gas trapped in the rock. Other high powered and very complex equipment then collects both the fracking solution and any freed natural gas at the surface.

Advocates of fracking claim their equipment has excellent recovery rates of fracking fluid and liberated gas while opponents of fracking say they have indisputable proof that fracking causes potentially irreversible damage to fresh water deposits, through which fracking fluids and equipment must burrow, and that this damage comes from equipment failures and in some cases a lack of environmental responsibility on the parts of drilling companies.

Whether you side with the drilling companies (and their investors) or environmentalists and members of communities claiming that drilling companies have destroyed the water supply in various regions of the country, the fact remains that fracking has happened and probably will continue to happen until someone comes up with solid, irrefutable evidence that fracking causes wholesale damage to underground aquifers.

Moral of the story?

Until more private citizens begin testing their well water on a regular basis no one will ever know the true extent of damage potentially or actually caused by hydraulic fracturing and gas companies will have the ability to possibly walk away from ‘environmental situations’ their activities may have caused.

You simply cannot prove an After without proof of a Before. Sounds stupid, sure, but in the grand scheme of things, and when it comes to the quality of drinking water, Water Testing Blog strongly suggests that more people take an interest in the quality of the water coming up and out of their private wells… because others who see only dollars, cents and profit may not care — or may not care enough — about the safety of your drinking water.

Testing options?

Obviously you WILL need to use the services of a certified water testing laboratory. First and foremost we highly suggest consulting the US EPA Web Site which features a list of State Certification Officers for Drinking Water Laboratories. Simply locate your State’s officer and call to get a list of currently certified drinking water testing laboratories in your State.

For those not interested in having a ‘full-blown’ water test performed — which could cost many hundreds of dollars if per formed and documented (important!) correctly — non-local companies such as National Testing Laboratories offer decent, comprehensive and certified water testing services in most US States.

You can read/download the EPA’s plan of attack for investigating fracking on the EPA web site.

Does the EPA’s taking a look at the practice of fracking mean problems for the companies currently involved in that business? No, but it does mean someone may finally examine the procedures, equipment and techniques used to pump many millions of gallons of toxic chemicals and salt water through the heart of freshwater aquifers in an effort to extract natural gas.

Proponents claim hydraulic fracturing poses no risks an opponents claim it puts irreplaceable freshwater reserves in grave danger. Hopefully the EPA will shed some light on the topic for everyone.

Now that the drilling has gone on long enough, people in the affected areas have started to reap some serious financial benefits from the activity and proponents of hydraulic fracturing now say that entire communities would suffer great losses (i.e. get decimated) if companies stopped drilling for natural gas nearby.

Restaurants, stores and other businesses in communities in and around areas where natural gas companies have set up hydraulic fracturing sites have experienced tremendous gains and as pointed out during a recent 60 Minutes broadcast, one community gained over 57,000 jobs.

Proponents of fracking tout facts and figures of that nature as additional evidence that fracking presents itself as a win-win situation from all angles.

Opponents view those facts and figures as good, yes, but for how long? As soon as the gas gets extracted or vanishes for an unknown reason, so will the money and so will the jobs. Life will return to normal for the permanents of those small farming communities, right?

Sure… Except for all the drilling equipment and structures left in place because it would cost more to tear them down and truck them elsewhere. Permanent eyesores left for future generations to gaze upon and wonder if any still contain dangerous fluids that may have started seeping into the ground as the equipment sits unattended, uninspected, and without proper maintenance.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — To supporters, it’s a 21st century economic boom that will benefit millions across the Northeast. To critics, it could be this century’s biggest national eco-disaster, tainting water supplies for tens of millions.

…

Combining a new process of horizontal drilling with fracking, drillers are unlocking vast deposits there and in other formations around the U.S. such as the Barnett Shale in Texas — a boom that could ensure cheap and plentiful natural gas for many years to come for homeowners, factories and power plants.

…

The drilling frenzy in the Marcellus Shale is also credited with enriching landowners and pumping new life into trucking companies, short-line railroads, quarries and steel-pipe makers, as well as the restaurants and hotels hosting out-of-state drilling crews.

An industry-financed study by Penn State projected that the boom would generate tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local taxes in the coming years.

…

However, the use of fracking is raising pollution concerns across the Northeast.

While the industry maintains that fracking has been proved safe over the decades, homeowners are coming forward with tales of wells producing brown, foul-smelling water or water polluted with methane and chemicals.

In the northeastern Pennsylvania town of Dimock, a hotspot of Marcellus Shale exploration, some residents no longer use their polluted well water and can light their taps on fire because of methane they say seeped into their wells because of drilling. ( source )

Hopefully before this whole fracking thing (that almost sounded rude, right? Ha ha.) goes too far and we place weening ourselves off of OPEC’s oil and wallowing in ‘get rich quick’ wealth over the safety of our drinking water supply… someone will step in and implement some regulations the EPA can enforce.

Some have argued that the government ought to require drilling companies to pay for mandatory third party testing of well water near drilling sites and continue to pay for testing in the affected areas long after their wells have run dry.

Needless to say, the drilling companies have fallen back on their argument that hydraulic fracturing poses no risk to the aquifers through which their boring equipment must pass because of the thick metal casing and cement drilling companies use to insulate surrounding ground from chemicals and compounds used their processes.

They also say that the actual insertion of fracking fluids takes place close to two miles below the surface, more than a mile and half away from the locations of most aquifers.

Our opinion of hydraulic fracturing?

At this point we believe erring on the side of caution makes the most and that allowing hydraulic fracturing, an industry not nearly as regulated as most others that could have serious effects on the environment, to continue unchecked could result in horrifying consequences for millions of people, if not entire vast regions of the country.

Testing of the water around hydraulic fracturing sites (by third party, independent laboratories) and compiling the data will help learn more about the effects of fracking on the environment. We believe that sort of testing and data compilation needs to get done before we let Big Business and our own greed get the best of us — and allow us to accidentally poison our own wells, the very source of our existence.