title: Environmental contamination due to shale gas development.
abstract: Shale gas development potentially contaminates both air and water compartments. To assist in governmental decision-making on future explorations, we reviewed scattered information on activities, emissions and concentrations related to shale gas development. We compared concentrations from monitoring programmes to quality standards as a first indication of environmental risks. Emissions could not be estimated accurately because of incomparable and insufficient data. Air and water concentrations range widely. Poor wastewater treatment posed the highest risk with concentrations exceeding both Natural Background Values (NBVs) by a factor 1000-10,000 and Lowest Quality Standards (LQSs) by a factor 10-100. Concentrations of salts, metals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hydrocarbons exceeded aquatic ecotoxicological water standards. Future research must focus on measuring aerial and aquatic emissions of toxic chemicals, generalisation of experimental setups and measurement technics and further human and ecological risk assessment.
authors: Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Water and Wetland Research (IWWR), Radboud University (RU), Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors: M P J A
authors: MPJA
authors: Annevelink
authors: Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Water and Wetland Research (IWWR), Radboud University (RU), Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors: J A J
authors: JAJ
authors: Meesters
authors: Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Water and Wetland Research (IWWR), Radboud University (RU), Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: A.J.Hendriks@science.ru.nl.
authors: A J
authors: AJ
authors: Hendriks
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D059206:Natural Gas; D061329:Oil and Gas Fields; D018570:Risk Assessment; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D059206:Natural Gas; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds
keywords: Aquatic toxicology; Chemical concentrations; Chemical emission; Ecotox TRV; Environmental contamination; Environmental risks; Shale gas development; TWA-TLV; Toxicology