A Groundwater Modeling Framework for Elucidating Community Exposures Across the Marcellus Region to Contamination Associated with Oil and Gas Development
James Saiers
Professor
Yale University

The research team will build and test a model for understanding residential well water vulnerability to contamination from unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD) across the Marcellus region. This analysis will increase the understanding of risk to groundwater quality using publicly available data describing UOGD spills. The investigators will achieve their goal by:

  1. Modeling residential drinking water well vulnerability to contamination from UOGD sources over time across the Marcellus region. The model will describe how contaminants move in the subsurface.
  2. Using the model to understand the likelihood that specific UOGD spills will contaminate the water in residential wells.
  3. Refining the model and assessing its performance with statistical analyses using the characteristics of documented cases of UOGD spills and known contamination at well locations.

 

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Saires map
James Saiers
Professor
Yale University

Research Team

James Saiers
Professor
Yale University
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James Saiers

Project Updates

Saiers Quarterly Update - June 2024

A Groundwater Modeling Framework for Elucidating Community Exposures Across the Marcellus Region to Contamination Associated with Oil and Gas Development

James Saiers

The research team will build and test a model for understanding residential well water vulnerability to contamination from unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD) across the Marcellus region. This analysis will increase the understanding of risk to groundwater quality using publicly available data describing UOGD spills. The investigators will achieve their goal by:

  1. Modeling residential drinking water well vulnerability to contamination from UOGD sources over time across the Marcellus region. The model will describe how contaminants move in the subsurface.
  2. Using the model to understand the likelihood that specific UOGD spills will contaminate the water in residential wells.
  3. Refining the model and assessing its performance with statistical analyses using the characteristics of documented cases of UOGD spills and known contamination at well locations.

 

What's Happened

  • Launched the study on April 1, 2024.
  • Presented a scientific research poster at the HEI Annual Conference 2024 in Philadelphia, PA, April 28-30.

What's New

  • Acquiring data on hydrogeologic conditions, drinking water quality, and UOGD well pad locations and spills in the Marcellus Shale region.
  • Commence development of a regional-scale groundwater flow model to support estimates of drinking water vulnerability to UOGD contamination across the Marcellus Shale region.

What's Next

  • Calibrate and test the regional-scale groundwater flow model with data on groundwater levels, land-surface expressions of the water table, and groundwater discharges to streams.
  • Link calibrated groundwater flow model with particle-tracking model to simulate the transport of UOGD fluids away from well pads and analyze transport pathways to quantify vulnerability to drinking water sources.