UPDATED: May 8, 2015 at 4:19 p.m.

A leading scientific journal has issued a correction to a study about fracking that was co-authored by the chair of the department of earth sciences at Syracuse University because of a conflict of interest.

The study concluded that drinking water in North Eastern Pennsylvania was not at a greater risk of methane contamination from fracking wells close to homes than those further away.

Donald Siegel, chair of the earth sciences department, and the co-authors of the study failed to disclose a financial conflict of interest, according to the correction. Siegel did not mention in the study that Chesapeake Energy, an energy company with fracking projects in the area, provided private funding to Siegel to complete to the study, according to the correction. The correction also said the study failed to disclose the fact that a co-author of the study, Bert Smith, worked for Chesapeake Energy during the time of the study.

“I think the paper speaks to itself. The fact that is was never retracted and was never removed from being published by the journal in the beginning nor was it removed after we submitted our expanded disclosure says everything,” Siegel said. “It’s not an issue. It never was an issue”

Fracking is the process by which natural gas is retrieved from drilling and injecting water at high pressures into rocks underground. The highly controversial process was banned in New York state by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in December.

An Inside Climate News report first called into question Siegel’s financial ties with Chesapeake Energy after the study was published in April. The report, according to Inside Climate News, prompted the correction from the American Chemical Society, which publishes the Environmental Science & Technology journal.

“It does raise a flag with an editor of a journal when an author comes in with these kinds of issues in the past,” Greg Ruskin, director of the ACS, told Inside Climate News.

He added that ACS journals rely on the honor system from authors to disclose their conflicts of interests.

In a hearing on April 23 held by the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Siegel said his failure to disclose his financial ties to Chesapeake Energy was not unethical because the editors of the journal published the study anyway.

“I found this accusation unusual, insofar as the reviewers of the paper, the associate editor handling it, and the editor found no fault and accepted the paper for publication,” Siegel testified at the hearing. “I have served as associate editor of many professional journals over my career. I fully understand disclosure issues.”

Published on May 8, 2015 at 2:30 pm

Contact Rachel: rsandler@syr.edu