June 2004 LSAT Section 1 Question 5

Based on the information in the passage, if a prospective oil well drilled near a large city encounters a large groun...

James-Nash on September 9, 2020

Why is it E and not A?

I was initially leaning towards E but picked A because the passage only discusses the casing in the context of protecting water from oil.

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yckim2180 on October 13, 2020

Hi, just following up on this question. Could someone please explain?

Victoria on October 14, 2020

Hi @James-Nash and @yckim2180,

Happy to help!

Answer choice (E) is correct because lines 30 to 33 tell us that "...without appropriate safeguards, wells that penetrate both groundwater and oil or saline water formations inevitably contaminate the groundwater."

The passage then goes on to explain that this contamination can be prevented using casing.

Oil is not the only thing that can contaminate groundwater. The addition of salt water would also contaminate the groundwater by rendering it unpotable.

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.