"Journal Corrects Fracking Study Over Undisclosed Industry Funding"

"An influential science journal has issued a correction to a paper on fracking and water safety, after revelations that the authors did not disclose their financial ties to energy giant Chesapeake Energy. The correction was prompted by an article in InsideClimate News in April.

The paper, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, concluded that drinking water wells near natural gas sites are not at greater risk of methane contamination than those farther way. It was based on more than 11,000 water samples from Pennsylvania fracking country. Citing its breadth, the authors said the paper challenges smaller studies that link gas drilling to methane pollution.

Chesapeake, the nation's second-largest producer of gas, provided the samples to the research team, led by Donald Siegel, chairman of earth sciences at Syracuse University.

While that was disclosed in the paper, Siegel failed to divulge that he had been compensated by Chesapeake for his work. The authors also did not disclose that one of the co-authors, Bert Smith, worked for Chesapeake during part of the period when the study took place."

Neela Banerjee reports for InsideClimate News May 7, 2015.