Shale Gas Development and Drinking Water Quality
通过宾夕法尼亚州公共饮用水样本的新数据集，研究发现页岩气开发（特别是1公里内的井场）会增加饮用水中的相关污染物，即使经过市政处理。
Recent studies have linked shale gas development (SGD) to ground water contamination. The extent of these environmental externalities, to date, remains uncertain. To address this gap, we examine whether shale gas development systematically affects drinking water quality by creating a novel dataset that relates SGD to public drinking water samples in Pennsylvania. Our difference-in-differences strategy finds evidence that additional well pads drilled within 1 kilometer of a community water system intake increases shale gas-related contaminants in drinking water. These results are striking considering that our data are based on water sampling measurements taken after municipal treatment.