Challenges and opportunities from a combined research study and community groundwater testing program for residents living near hydraulic fracturing sites in Appalachian Ohio
Abstract
People living in rural areas of the United States often depend on groundwater as the only domestic and agricultural water resource. Hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking") has led to widespread fears of groundwater contamination, and many people lack resources for monitoring their water. To help in this effort, I led a three-year free groundwater monitoring program for residents of parts of the Utica Shale drilling region of Ohio from early 2012 to early 2015. Our team took samples and made laboratory measurements of species meant to act as indicators of the presence of natural gas or fracking fluid in groundwater. All data were made available to participants, and all participation was voluntary. The project team also made several presentations about our findings at community meetings. In this presentation, I will discuss challenges associated with obtaining funding and communicating results with the media, the oil and gas industry, Congress, and my university. However, opportunities have arisen from this work as well, beyond the obvious opportunity for public service, including recruitment of undergraduate and graduate students to the project team; generation of scientific data in an emerging area of research; and a better understanding of policy needs for rural residents in Appalachia.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFMPA31B0335T
- Keywords:
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- 1630 Impacts of global change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1637 Regional climate change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 6309 Decision making under uncertainty;
- POLICY SCIENCES;
- 6699 General or miscellaneous;
- PUBLIC ISSUES