Fracking: Study Suggests Home Values For Property Using Local Groundwater For Drinking Are Taking Hit In Areas Near Shale Gas Wells

In Washington County, Pennsylvania, McClatchy Tribune  reports:

• Property owners near shale gas wells are liable to suffer a major loss in value because of worries over water contamination, according to economists from Duke University and the nonprofit research organization Resources for the Future.
  
  Their study found Pennsylvania homeowners who use local groundwater for drinking lost up to 24 percent of their property value if they are within a mile and a quarter of a shale gas well.
  
  But the news was far better for neighbors who get their water piped in. They saw values rise by nearly 11 percent, likely because of lease money from gas drillers and no worries about polluted water, the researchers found.
  
  The study is among the first attempts to measure the impact on property owners of the shale gas boom sweeping the nation. It comes as the need for new regulations is being hotly debated and shale gas critics allege people are getting sick from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the process in which high-pressure water and chemicals are injected underground to free up the natural gas in shale rock.
  
  There has been no scientific consensus determining that fracking pollutes groundwater. But the fear is enough to drive down property values, suggests the study, which was recently released by the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research after being completed this summer. The researchers said the 24 percent drop in home values was driven by public perception instead of any actual data showing contamination.
  
  "The perception of how much risk there is of groundwater contamination from fracking is tremendous," said Lucija Muehlenbachs of the nonpartisan Resources for the Future, who conducted the study with colleague Elisheba Spiller and Chris Timmins, an economics professor at Duke University.
  
  The researchers looked at property values of all homes in Washington County, Pa., near Pittsburgh. It's an area at the heart of the shale gas revolution. They found just over 200 homes within a mile and a quarter of a shale gas well.
  
  About half the homes were on piped water. Researchers saw an increase in value in those homes. The other half relied on water wells that drew from local groundwater, and they had a significant loss in value. The researchers suggested that loss could lead to an increase in the likelihood of foreclosure in areas experiencing the rapid growth of hydraulic fracturing.

For more, see Study: Fracking can hurt property values of homes with wells.