CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

A preliminary study by researchers with the Academy of Natural Sciences asserts that rivers and streams could be at risk of pollution because of a boom in drilling on the Marcellus Shale natural gas formation, even without spills or accidents.

Researchers at the academy, the nation's oldest natural-science research center and a leading expert in stream biology, compared watersheds where there was little or no drilling to those watersheds where there was drilling and found significant changes, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Tuesday.

The study has not been peer-reviewed or published in any scientific journal.

The study found that water conductivity, a barometer of contamination by salts that are found in drilling wastewater, was nearly twice as high in streams nearby high-density drilling.

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