EARLY HEARING DETECTION AND INTERVENTION VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
MARCH 2-5, 2021
(Virtually the same conference, without elevators, airplane tickets, or hotel room keys)
5/23/2019 | 11:45 AM - 12:00 PM | DETECTING UNCONVENTIONAL OIL AND GAS PRODUCED WATERS IN HEADWATER STREAMS: A CHEMISTRY AND ORGANISMAL APPROACH | 150 DEF
DETECTING UNCONVENTIONAL OIL AND GAS PRODUCED WATERS IN HEADWATER STREAMS: A CHEMISTRY AND ORGANISMAL APPROACH
Unconventional oil and gas (UOG) (a.k.a. hydraulic fracking) has had a surge in development and production in the past decade, the potential for environmental impact is of concern. Use of large quantities of water in the fracturing process creates flow-back water that is high in dissolved solids, which must be managed. This flow-back water has a high potential to be included in the runoff from UOG wellpads. This has prompted our research into trying to identify methods to reliably measure the impacts of UOG on aquatic populations and stream health. We assessed water chemistry, macroinvertebrates, and fish from 60 UOG impacted and reference sites. Using principle components analysis on the chemistry, no significant correlations with UOG activity were found but, variability was better explained by other land use characteristics: legacy mining, urbanization, and agriculture. Community analysis similarly didn’t show strong correlations with UOG activity. However, analysis of fish condition via hematocrit levels and otolith microchemistry showed significantly different values in UOG when compared to reference streams. Our findings help bring to light issues with UOG detection in headwater streams and give support to new methods of UOG detection.
- Fish
- Invertebrate
- Disturbance
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Presenters/Authors
Kevin Eliason
(), West Virginia University, kme0019@mix.wvu.edu;
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Josh Ankeny
(), West Virginia University, jna0010@mix.wvu.edu ;
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Eric Merriam
(), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , emerriam@mail.wvu.edu ;
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Todd Petty
(), West Virginia University, Todd.Petty@mail.wvu.edu ;
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