Call for Papers

NGWA Workshop — Groundwater Quality and Unconventional Gas Development: Is There a Connection?

Pittsburgh, PA
November 13-14, 2014
Advances and greater use of horizontal wells and hydraulic fracturing technology has expanded natural gas and oil supplies. However, concerns have been raised about the possibility for contamination of shallow groundwater by stray gases, formation waters, and chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. Potential groundwater impacts can arise from a variety of sources and pathways, including the annuli of imperfectly cemented wells, accidents during chemical transport and storage, improper wastewater management and disposal, abandoned wells, and upward migration along geologic features.

The National Ground Water Association will bring together groundwater and other professionals to discuss sampling, monitoring, and research approaches to evaluate the connection of shallow groundwater quality and hydraulic fracturing and welcomes those who have appropriate research and expertise to submit abstracts. For example, what guidelines should be given for constituents and protocols for testing of water wells in proximity to oil or gas development? Many constituents related to oil and gas production occur naturally in groundwater or can arise from other manmade sources or operations. Concentrations vary over time in response to pumping and other conditions. Likewise, studies using dedicated wells at multiple depths at both the regional and local scale have been found to be very useful in understanding contaminant hydrogeology. Could similar field-scale experiments be used for evaluating impacts of unconventional oil and gas?

Abstracts for posters and a limited number of contributed talks for platform presentations are currently being sought on this topic area. A significant percentage of the platform presentations at the workshop will be invited. If you would like to submit an abstract for consideration in this workshop please click the submit button below.

Abstracts must be submitted in sentence form and without bullet points by Sunday, June 29, 2014 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Word limits are 15 words or less for titles and 300 words or less for abstracts.

Steps and Instructions:

  1. Enter Title

    Enter your title, and any comments to organizers.

  2. Enter Authors

    Enter author name, affiliation, and contact information.

  3. Enter Abstract Text

    You will be able to copy/paste your abstract into a text box.

  4. Confirmation

    You will have a chance to look over the submission to make sure all is complete.

  5. General Instructions

    No names or titles should be included in the abstract text. Names will be automatically hidden during the abstract review process and will be automatically inserted and properly formatted upon publication.

    Presenting authors will be automatically informed of the unique ID numbers and passwords assigned to their abstracts. Abstracts may be viewed and modified at any time between submission and the deadline, using the assigned ID# and password.

    Technical Support

    For help in submitting an abstract online, email Tech Support.

New Submissions Closed

Please Note

  • All submissions must be in electronic format.
  • Upon submission, an automatic message is generated and sent to your e-mail address with your ID and password.
  • Proposals are due by Sunday, June 29, 2014 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

More Information

Please contact Michele Hladik (614 898.7791, ext. 546/mhladik@ngwa.org) or Kathy Butcher (614 898.7791, ext. 526/kbutcher@ngwa.org) if you have questions.