PITTSBURGH — The Marcellus Shale Coalition on Tuesday prefaced its Shale Insight 2014 conference with workshops for energy professionals.

The fourth annual conference officially kicked off this morning. It will run through Thursday evening at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

The coalition, based in North Fayette Township, Allegheny County, is the leading trade organization for the shale gas industry in the Appalachian region.

One of the preconference sessions Tuesday focused on a major public concern: the contamination of well water through gas development.

A panel addressed recommended best practices and other concerns related to predrill water sampling.

The main points stressed are the importance of collecting an accurate baseline of water quality and being proactive in dealing with all sides involved, especially landowners.

Michael Teeling, a geologist for Stantec Consulting Services, talked about investigating landowner complaints in partnership with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

While post-drilling test results typically do not vary from pre-drilling figures, he provided several examples of when corrective measures were required.

Most corrective actions are passive, such as venting wells and installing gas monitors. More active corrections include filtering and aerating well water, as well as providing an alternative water supply or drilling a new well.

Fred Baldassare, a geoscientist for Echelon Applied Geoscience Consulting, discussed methane migration and some of the methods used to identify the sources of methane found in wells.

He said finding methane in the shallow subsurface is not uncommon. It occurs naturally as a result of past resource development or through new activity.

“This gas moves very quickly. It will migrate as a gas in the subsurface or dissolved in groundwater,” he said. “Because it moves faster than air — and if you have pressure moving it — it can move in a pattern that is unpredictable.”

He said water wells and buildings are natural receptors to methane.

“We’re dealing with a compound that doesn’t want to stay in the water, and its solubility is a function of head pressure, and that private water supply well is being used every day by the homeowner,” he said.

He said Pennsylvania is one of only two states without water well drilling standards.

“Anybody can spend $50 and buy a water well driller’s license and drill a water well in Pennsylvania,” he said.

That results in many wells drilled into geologic formations that produce low quality water.

Baldassare said methane is not toxic but can affect other factors of water quality, making it objectionable but not unsafe to drink. Only in high concentrations can it be an asphyxiant or an explosion risk, he said.

Baldassare said many of the complaints he has investigated have turned out to be caused by factors other than shale gas drilling.

One example was an old coal bed underneath a water well that was creating pressure. It was forcing methane up through the ground in some areas, not just through the well.

Another example occurred several years after a new housing development was built. It turned out the developer cut down and buried an entire apple orchard underneath the new homes.

The decay of the material created enough methane to contaminate the wells.

Scott Perry, deputy secretary for the state DEP’s Office of Oil and Gas Management, said the agency’s most critical issue is protecting groundwater.

He said a list released recently by the DEP consisted of 239 cases of contamination from all possible causes. But during the time period of the report, 20,000 new wells were drilled.

Among speakers at the conference is Dave Spigelmyer of Cranberry Township, who is president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition.