Fracking and ground water cleanup

Fracking may be responsible for the contamination of drinking water in a small town in Wyoming according to reports from Reuters.   A preliminary report from the EPA suggests that fluids from the shallow natural gas deposit moved up to the overlying drinking water aquifer.  Fracking is a common practice in the US for extraction of natural gas.  If drinking water contamination becomes a more frequent problem this could curtail or shut down this practice. 

Update: University of Minnesota Researchers have developed methods to reduce contamination of the water used in fracking. According to a MN Daily article researchers are using natural soil bacteria in porous silicon beads to seperate out the chemicals from the water.  They are working on ways to scale up the operation to use on water filtration systems on site.

As a teenager, I recall being on a dairy farm where the methane from the feedlot entered the drinking water for the family.  They were able to light the surface of the water on fire with a match.  This is very dangerous and I would not suggest that anyone do this.  It points out the need for careful design of  both feedlots and fracking operations to prevent ground water contamination.

                        Diagram from http://www.ecoversity.org/case_focus/fracking/fracking.html

                                                       MSNBC :  Tap water on Fire