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  • Mountain Ridge students Sidney Castro, left, and Leah Yazdani collect water samples as part of their advanced placement environmental science class. Students will gather samples from six sites in the Frostburg area to begin a baseline study of water quality in preparation for possible hydraulic fracturing as part of natural gas development.

    Sidney Castro, left, and Leah Yazdani
March 17, 2012

Mountain Ridge High School students monitoring Frostburg water quality

For the Cumberland Times-News Cumberland Times-News

FROSTBURG — Students in Tom Kozikowski’s advanced placement environmental science classes at Mountain Ridge High School have begun to collect baseline water quality data on the municipal water supply of Frostburg and surrounding areas.

The water not only supplies the school, but also 12,000 residents of Allegany County. The students will continue to collect water samples for several years, and if hydraulic fracturing occurs in the area from natural gas development, the school will have data before, during and after it begins. Looking for changes in bromide, barium, strontium, total dissolved solids and several other key fracking-related water quality parameters will be the focus.

The issue has been highly scrutinized because of the potential for both positive and negative impacts of Marcellus shale drilling. Lack of accurate information has fueled tensions between both proponents and opponents. To date, hydraulic fracturing has not been permitted in Maryland.  

The municipal drinking water supply for Frostburg comes from the Piney Run Reservoir and the Savage River aquifer. Students will gather water samples from the aquifer outlet; an unnamed tributary to the reservoir near the most likely fracking site; the Piney Creek tributary to the reservoir; the reservoir outlet; and both the raw water faucet and the treated water faucet at the Frostburg Municipal Water Treatment Plant. Data will be collected on-site and samples will be sent to the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Chesapeake Biological Lab for more detailed analysis.  

Water quality samples will be collected at each of these six sites once a month. All information will be reported to the city of Frostburg, Allegany County commissioners and the media on an annual basis or after a notable change in their findings occurs.

“It’s pretty exciting to have ACPS students participating in collecting real data for a local environmental issue that will be shared with those in decision-making positions, and the fact that a UMCES scientist/researcher is going to work alongside the students provides credibility to their work,” said Karen Bundy, director of secondary education for the public school system.

“The students were really inspired to be part of a project this unique and 100 percent real science and 100 percent important,” Koz-ikowski said. “The goal of the project is to involve students in providing reliable information to the public so that properly informed decisions can be made.”

Advising and assisting the class is Johan Schijf of the Chesapeake Biological Lab, Dan Soeder of the U.S. Department of Energy and John Kirby and Chris Hovatter of the city of Frostburg. For a copy of the data tables or to donate to the project, email thomas.kozikowski@ acps.k12.md.us.

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