by Jessica Helm, Conservation Chair
Gas drilling involves a major industrial mobilization into and out of a local area over a relatively short time. Road and well-pad construction, drilling, and fracking can each impact local streams, and we will never have enough state inspectors to oversee it all.
Volunteer monitors can watch for signs of damage and report incidents which otherwise may never have been reported. Reporting a problem early may allow it to be contained and the damage minimized, but there is an added benefit. Like a small child, gas companies may be less tempted to break the rules if they know others are watching.
Baseline data gives the volunteer monitor authority as an observer, and makes monitoring information more valuable. Ideally a year or more of measurements should be documented before drilling activity begins in an area. This documentation gives a standard, or baseline, against which new data can be compared. The baseline helps distinguish between a “real” event—something new and truly different, and therefore more likely due to new gas drilling activity—and random changes due to other factors besides the new activity.
Stream flow provides a clear example of the need for long-term baseline measurements. If a gallon of chemicals is spilled into a stream running at high levels (typical in the spring), it will be diluted by the large volume of water, and may show up in tests only as a low concentration. In late summer, when stream water is very low, any pollution present in the stream would be concentrated and would appear in tests.
In the first case, we might miss the pollution entirely, and in the second, we risk reporting seasonal changes as a pollution event and losing credibility with the agency we report it to. Baseline data allows us to put each measurement in the context of stream flow and decide accurately what is or is not unusual or reportable.