Professor Amy Rhodes (Geosciences) and senior Alanna Sparagna (Chemistry) are testing the chemistry of private drinking water wells around Fiddle Lake in northeastern Pennsylvania. Professor Rhodes is interested in gathering baseline data of the local ground water before natural gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing methods occurs within the watershed. She hopes to provide regional variation in water chemistry, and upper baseline concentration limits, for the Fiddle Lake community.
Amy and Alanna are working with the Spatial Analysis Lab to access our GPS units to collect the data and GIS technologies to map the data. This is an ongoing multi-year project that begin in 2011. Check in for updates throughout the year.