If the well water contained only methane then perhaps this could be resolved – the issue is the awesome cocktail of secret chemicals that come back up with the water. Everything you do not want near a living organism.

*sigh*

http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/

As a groundwater professional I will say this. Drinking water wells are not set into formations that yield flammable water. Nobody will pay you for that well.

Normal use of a small drinking water well will not cause any measurable change in the aquifer, for it will not be permitted by your board of health or appropriate other government agency (not that they’re all perfectly up on this, but pretty much they are, ymmv).

One thing I can say for certain – drilling a borehole PAST the region from which an existing drinking water well draws its water (the screened interval) most certainly can affect the water quality in the screened interval, with the effects increased with increasing proximity of the two boreholes (just add calculus).

Pressurized water from a lower hydraulic layer will definitely flow up a borehole (think artesian well). The desire of methane to be a gas adds some pressure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_I_and_type_II_errors

There is a trade off between the two.  One type of error is that you stop economic activity that is actually safe and you waste economic activity and people lose jobs.  The other type corresponds to continuing something that is actually dangerous.  You can’t minimize one type of error without increasing the chances of the other.  The question then becomes, which type of error should one be more concerned with?

In instances like this, I think one should err on the side of abstaining from the activity that might possibly kill or sicken people.

“However, the burning water is an undisputed fact. So where is this methane coming from, if not from fracking? As it happens, it’s natural, worldwide, for anyone who has a well in a natural gas area. Natural gas is not found only in the deep shale beds, it’s in shallower layers as well; so we always expect some gas to make it into well water in particular regions. But the mining of natural gas also has a few consequences that can force methane into aquifers. First, the underground changes in pressure can prompt methane to migrate from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. Second, poorly sealed natural gas wells can (and do) leak methane into adjacent strata. These poorly sealed wells are human errors that it’s the responsibility of the driller to repair. Third, old abandoned wells do the same thing, but often without anyone repairing them. None of these problems are related to fracking, per se.”
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4275

McPhee points out it was the burning water that drew the oil drillers like Rockefeller to the region as it was an obvious indication there was plentiful oil in Pennsylvania.

Now, 130 years later, the water is still burning. Whether at this point,  it’s due to fracking or due to a natural gas seep in the aquifer isn’t clear. 

I think the water table needs protection for sure but it shouldn’t surprise anyone when a water well and a natural gas well are close that this could happen. 

Just wait until the gas company starts charging her for all the free methane she has been getting.

Might help to read the original wsj article. 

“Before you call for more regulation, prove there’s a problem first,” he said, speaking after an appearance on a local radio show.

http://www.syvnews.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_85f9773e-e40e-11e0-8efd-001cc4c002e0.html

“I meant to say prove there’s a problem other than that your drinking water’s on fire!”