Universities Testing Water

Three Rivers QUEST Program

Primarily from article by Casey Junkins, Wheeling Intelligencer, December 10, 2012

Saying they want to prevent carcinogenic trihalomethanes from forming in the region’s water supply, officials with West Virginia University and Wheeling Jesuit University are checking major rivers for pollution.

Wheeling Jesuit biology professor Ben Stout joined others in Pittsburgh last week to take a sampling of the Ohio and Allegheny rivers as part of the Three Rivers QUEST, a federally funded program designed to monitor water quality in these rivers, as well as the Monongahela River. The Allegheny meets with the Monongahela River in the heart of Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River, which flows southward through the upper Ohio Valley.

Even though he admits that bromide – the chemical whose presence can lead to trihalomethanes – can occur naturally, Stout said bromide is commonly found in rivers near areas that have heavy Marcellus Shale natural gas activity.

He said officials want to collect data from various points along all three rivers every two weeks for one year to see how much the region’s gas drilling is impacting the water supply.”We need to see exactly what is getting into our water. That way, we can take action now before it is too late,” Stout said.

In addition to cancer, exposure to trihalomethanes can cause liver damage or decrease nervous system activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

After gas drillers pump millions of gallons of fracking fluid – consisting mostly of water and sand, but also including different chemical combinations that vary per the choice of the driller – into a production well, much of this substance flushes back up through the well. The fracking fluid combines with minerals and mud from the earth to create the briny wastewater that contains bromide.

Gas drillers have also been known to use ethylene glycol, a substance found in antifreeze, in their fracking fluid. Some others have used formaldehyde, which the Occupational Safety and Health Administration identifies as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.”

See the web site for the WVU Three Rivers QUEST Program here.

The West Virginia Water Research Institute at West Virginia University, with the help of the Colcom Foundation, is expanding its successful Monongahela River water quality monitoring program to include the upper Ohio and Allegheny rivers.

The Institute developed the Quality Useful Environmental Study Teams program – known as QUEST – in response to growing concern over total dissolved solids – or TDS – in the Monongahela River in 2009. The newly expanded program is now called Three Rivers QUEST, or 3RQ.

A $700,000 grant from the Colcom Foundation, a Pittsburgh-based private foundation dedicated to fostering a sustainable environment, will allow for a geographic expansion of the program to include the Allegheny and upper Ohio River basins.

The first step in expanding the program was identifying partners to implement the monitoring program in the new geographical regions. Using a Request for Proposals process, Wheeling Jesuit University was selected to monitor the water quality of the upper Ohio River areas from Pittsburgh, Pa. downstream to near Parkersburg, W.Va. The monitoring will include several locations on the main stem of the Ohio River as well as major tributaries in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Duquesne University in Pittsburgh will monitor the lower Allegheny River and its key tributaries while the Iron Furnace Chapter of Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited will monitor the upper portions of the Allegheny River and its tributaries.

The new program partners will be officially recognized and welcomed to the QUEST team at the annual State Water Research Conference on Tuesday and Wednesday (Oct. 30 and 31) at the Waterfront Place Hotel in Morgantown. The success of the QUEST program will be highlighted at this year’s event and presentations by Institute Director Paul Ziemkiewicz and QUEST Program Manager Melissa O’Neal will cover the topic in greater detail. To view the agenda and to register for this year’s event, visit www.wvwaterconference.org/2012.

The QUEST program includes a regimented, bi-weekly monitoring effort. While in the field, the Institute’s technicians record field data and collect water samples that undergo a rigorous chemical analysis at a state certified laboratory. In addition to the research, local watershed organizations participate in the monitoring program by collecting field data from various locations in the headwater streams of the rivers’ tributaries.

The QUEST program supports participating watershed organizations by providing access to monitoring equipment, chemical analysis of water samples and the use of an innovative data management tool that allows volunteers to enter their data via the internet into a secure, self-managed database. All the data collected is displayed on the program’s interactive web site (www.3riversquest.com) where citizens, scientists, federal and state agencies and industry have access to the water quality information and can search by location or date.

Founded in 1967, the West Virginia Water Research Institute is funded through the U.S. Geological Survey. It serves as a statewide vehicle for performing research related to water issues. It serves as the premier water research center in West Virginia and, within selected fields, is an international leader.

The primary mission of the Colcom Foundation is to foster a sustainable environment to ensure quality of life for all Americans by addressing major causes and consequences of overpopulation and its adverse effects on natural resources. Regionally, the Foundation supports conservation, environmental projects and cultural assets.

The grant from the Colcom Foundation was made in conjunction with “A State of Minds: The Campaign for West Virginia’s University.” The $750 million comprehensive campaign being conducted by the WVU Foundation on behalf of the University runs through December 2015.

CONTACT: Dave Saville, WV Water Research Institute
304.293.7066, Dave.Saville@mail.wvu.edu