Our thoughts and opinions about gas extraction and related topics

It's not too late to donate to FracTracker and help us continue our mapping work

It’s not too late to donate to FracTracker Alliance

Our planet needs your help and so does FracTracker so we can keep helping the planet. Forgive our circular logic, but you are invaluable in keeping us in motion.

Our first, formal annual fund campaign launched in September 2016 and has received over $15,000 in donations. While that is 30% of our goal, every dollar matters and demonstrates the worth you see in what we do.

We haven’t changed the world in the past 10 months, but we have made a difference. Our maps and insights have powered campaigns on renewable energy and made data on the threats of oil and gas-related air pollution just a click away. From the impacts of pipelines to degradation from sand mines, we keep digitizing and analyzing to show the harms in formats that communicate the dirty truth about fossil fuels.

We don’t ask often, but we do need to ask. As our fiscal year comes to a close, will you donate to FracTracker Alliance? If you’ve never given to us before, we welcome your consideration. If you’re a prior donor, we appreciate your past support and hope you’ll contemplate an equal or greater contribution.

The challenges don’t cease, and neither will we. Our new mobile app ushers in broad opportunities to document the effects of extraction. An unprecedented wave of oil and gas infrastructure demands our attention. More organizations and communities seek to partner and benefit from our data and insights. Some recent testimonials attest to our worth:

Thanks for all that you do, it’s so important and much appreciated.
– Harvey S., Berkeley, CA

Best group of experts to work with… 
– Kim F., New York, NY

The research and tools that FracTracker produces and supports are truly unique.
– Prarthana G., Washington, DC

Your work at the FracTracker Alliance is first-rate… you empowered and inspired those in attendance.
– Doug S., Pittsburgh, PA

If you feel like they do, please consider a gift. Donors of $250 or more receive the oh-so-cool hybrid light – solar lantern, flashlight, and mobile device charger all in one. View the entirety of our donations page for a variety of ways you can provide financial support to FracTracker Alliance.

With your help, we’ll continue to illuminate the truth and elevate the imperative of a sustainable energy future. It’s not too late! Thank you for your interest in our work.

Cheers,
Brook Lenker
Executive Director
FracTracker Alliance

Put on your earth shoes - call to action by Brook Lenker

Put on Your Earth Shoes

The biggest challenge humanity has ever faced.

That’s one way to describe climate change. It proceeds ahead of schedule, threatening to wreak havoc on the world we know. No longer merely flirting with disaster, we’re tangled in a frenetic dance to save ourselves. Our friends at Years of Living Dangerously have vividly captured the scale of what’s at stake.
Meanwhile, a laundry list of deplorable measures by President Trump ignores or outright dismantles America’s capacity to respond. Federal investment in clean energy is forsaken. Retro economics reigns replete with dystopian impacts on people and the planet. It could be 1950 all over again. Then, we were blinded by the future – fooled that oil and ingenuity would win the day. Today we are sobered by it. Only wholesale change can get us to tomorrow.

The technologies and bright ideas are ready for broader deployment. They’re propelled by information, action, and unbridled hope. Hope feeds exponentially on the hope of others. The organism grows more powerful and adept through colonial enrichment.

Saturday’s Climate March, the People’s Climate Movement, is the feast of a lifetime, a chance to nurture our souls and make a statement for the generations. By bike, rail, bus or carpool, head to Washington, DC or a satellite March site on April 29th. Put on your earth shoes, walk in solidarity, and make the deniers shake in their sole-less shoes.

And don’t for a second think this will be the last word. When you’re choking Mother Earth, it’s a fight to the finish. Cooler heads prevail.

By Brook Lenker, Executive Director, FracTracker Alliance

Re-imagine Beaver County meeting - Photo by Sophie Riedel

Mapping a new vision in PA: Alternatives to petrochemical development

At a Re-Imagine Beaver County gathering in Pennsylvania earlier this month, static maps became dynamic in the hands of those who live in and around the region depicted. Residents of this area in the greater Pittsburgh region gathered to depict a new vision for Beaver County, PA. This county is currently faced with the proposal of a massive Shell-owned petrochemical facility – also called a “cracker” – and further build-out that could render the area a northern version of Louisiana’s “Chemical Corridor.” Participants at this event, from Beaver County and beyond, were encouraged to collectively envision a future based on sustainable development. The picture they created was one that welcomes change – but requires it to be sustainable and for the benefit of the community that makes it happen.

Re-Imagine Beaver County Group Mapping - by Sophie Riedel

Figure 1: Participants study a map of Beaver County. Photo credit: Sophie Riedel.

Re-Imagine Beaver County Participants

Panelists from municipal government, organic agriculture, and leaders and entrepreneurs of sustainable initiatives started off the event, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and endorsed by the Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Committee. After an hour, the room of 60 or so participants dove into the lively de- and re-construction of large format maps of the area. They were invited to markup the maps, created by Carnegie Mellon University graduate student of the School of Architecture, Sophie Riedel. Each table worked from a different base map of the same area – centering on the confluence of the Ohio and Beaver rivers, including the already heavily-industrialized riverside and the site of Shell’s proposed petrochemical facility.

Massive shell processing plant under construction in Beaver County PA and across the Ohio River from the town of Beaver. This massive processing plant, near residential areas, schools and hospitals, will be a serious threat to the health of the those living in the region.

Figure 2: The site of the proposed petrochemical facility in Beaver County (on left) and the Ohio River that participants hope to see reinvented as a recreational waterway buttressed by public parks. Photo credit: Garth Lenz, iLCP.

Much more than a thought exercise, the gathering represented a timely response to a growing grassroots effort around the proposed petrochemical inundation. Changes are already underway at the site, and those who live in this region have the right to give input. This right is especially salient when considering the risks associated with the petrochemical industry – including detrimental health impacts on babies before they are even born, asthma exacerbation, and increased cancer rates.

Charting a new vision

The re-invented Beaver County would be one of increased connectivity and mobility, well-equipped to provide for local needs with local means.

Many ideas included on the maps reflected a longing for transportation options independent of personal vehicles – including better, safer, more connected bike trails and walking paths, use of existing rail lines for local travel, and even the inventive suggestion of a water taxi. These inherently lower-impact means of transport coincide with preferences of millennials, according to several of the panelists, who want more walkable, bikeable communities. Ushering in such sustainable suggestions would welcome more young families to an area with an aging population. More than just about moving people, transportation ideas also included ways to get locally grown foods to those who need it, such as the elderly.

sophie-riedel-visioning-map-close-up

Figure 3: Participants modify maps to reflect a new vision. Photo credit: Sophie Riedel.

The value of beauty was a subtheme in many of the ideas to connect and mobilize the population and goods, ideas which often held a dual aim of protecting open space, creating new parks, and offering recreation possibilities. Participants ambitiously reimagined their river, the Ohio, from its current status as a closed-off corridor for industrial usage and waste, to a recreational resource for kayaking and fishing walleye.

Participants marked up the maps to show the resources that help sustain this community, and voiced a strong desire for development that would enable additional self-reliance. These forward-thinking changes included increased agriculture and use of permaculture techniques, and community gardens for growing food near the people who currently lack access. Ideas for powering the region abounded, like harnessing wind power and putting solar panels on every new building.

Participants were firm on local sourcing for another key resource: the labor required for these efforts, they insisted, must come from the local populace. Educational programs designed to channel learners into workers for sustainability might include training to rebuild homes to “greener” standards, and programs aimed at bringing a new generation of farmers to the fields. Perhaps a nod to the world-wide plastic glut that a petrochemical facility would add to, suggestions even included local ways of dealing with waste, like starting a composting program and establishing more recycling centers.

Whose vision?

Who is a part of this vision, both in creating it and living it out? Inevitably, the selection of panelists and the interests of the audience members themselves influenced the vision this group crafted. The question of inclusion and representation found articulation among many participants, and the hosts of the event welcomed suggestions on reaching a broader audience moving forward. Looking around the room, one man asked, “Where are all the young people, and families with kids?” Indeed, only several members of this demographic were present. Though indicative of the racial makeup of Beaver County, the audience appeared to be primarily white, meaning that the racially diverse communities in the region where not represented. Others pointed out that going forward, the audience should also include those residents struggling with un- and underemployment, who have a major stake in whatever vision of Beaver County comes to fruition. Another said he would like to see more elected officials and leaders present. Notably, Potter Township Board of Supervisors Chairperson, Rebecca Matsco, who is a strong advocate for the proposed petrochemical project in her township, was present for the first half of the event.

Local means for meeting local needs

People who welcome petrochemical development in Beaver County might believe that those who voice concerns about the proposed Shell plant aren’t forward-thinking, or simply oppose change. Quite in contrast, participants at Re-Imagine Beaver County went to work reinventing their community with optimism and enthusiasm. They didn’t seem to be resisting change, but instead, wanting to participate in the process of change and to ultimately see benefits to their community. For example, discussion of solar power generated substantial excitement. According to panel speaker Hal Saville, however, the biggest challenge is making it affordable for everyone, which suggests that the estimated $1.6 billion in tax breaks going to Shell for the petrochemical plant could be better allocated.

A key narrative from supporters of the ethane cracker centers on the pressing need for jobs in this area, though some locals have expressed concern about how many of Shell’s promised jobs would go to residents. Whoever gets hired, these jobs come with serious dangers to workers. Participants at this event proposed alternative initiatives – both ambitious and small – for creating jobs within the community, like providing “sprout funds” to encourage new business start-ups, and launching a coordinated effort to rehab aging housing stock. These ideas suggest that the people of this region feel their energy and ingenuity would be best spent making Beaver County a better place to live and work, in contrast to producing disposable petrochemical products for export around the world. The fact that so many participants emphasized local means for meeting their needs in no way downplays the need for good jobs. Rather, it points to the fact that people want jobs that are good for them and for the future of their community.

Moving the vision forward

Where do we go from here? Can the momentum of this event draw in greater representation from the region to have a voice in this process? Will these visions become animated and guide the creation of a new reality? Broader and deeper planning is in order; participants and panelists alike pointed to tools like comprehensive community plans and cleaner, “greener” industrial policies. More than anything, the group articulated a need for more deliberation and participation. As panelist and farm co-owner Don Kretschmann put it, when it comes to change, we need to “think it through before we go ahead and do it.”

The maps themselves, bearing the inspirations scrawled out during the event, have not reached the end of the road. From here, these maps will accompany an upcoming exhibition of the artworks in Petrochemical America, which locals hope to bring to the greater Pittsburgh area in the coming months. League of Women Voters, for their part, continue to move the vision forward, inviting input from all on next steps, with an emphasis on pulling in a broader cross-section of the community.

To voice your vision, and to stay in the loop on future Re-Imagine Beaver County events, contact reimaginelwvpa@gmail.com.


Many thanks to Sophie Riedel for sharing photographs from the event, and to the International League of Conservation Photographers and the Environmental Integrity Project for sharing the aerial photograph of the Shell site from their joint project, “The Human Cost of Energy Production.”

By Leann Leiter, Environmental Health Fellow

 

Cuyahoga River on fire - Photo by Cleveland State Univ Library

On a Dark Road to Nowhere

Teddy Roosevelt is rolling over in his grave. The progressive conservationist and one-time republican knew that healthy air, clean water, and stewardship of natural resources are tantamount to a high quality of life. Fifty years before Donald Trump drew his first infantile breath, Roosevelt was championing national parks and cities beautiful. America gained stature in the world – not only from economic might – but from noble ideas and values shared. Roosevelt was a visionary.

The ideals he sowed led to further cultivation of good. From Aldo Leopold to Rachel Carson, we learned that ecology includes humans. Everything is interconnected; everything has consequence. Ignoring the science of climate change and elementary cause and effect will have dire consequences.

In just a few days, the new president has wrought unprecedented carnage on laws and institutions created to protect our land and its people. The Center for Disease Control cancelled a long planned conference on climate change and health. An executive order was signed to clear the way for the Dakota and Keystone XL pipelines – potentially locking-in carbon pollution for decades if the projects move forward. The administration imposed a freeze on EPA grants and contracts and may be considering legislation to ban the EPA from generating its own internal science. The EPA is the federal agency charged to “protect human health and the environment.” Leadership with our best interests in mind would encourage scientific inquiry and requisite oversight, not silence it.

Economies thrive and civilizations rise when challenged to adapt and improve. Prosperity is on the rise in states with high expectations and greater public investment. The mantra of cutting regulations is gross deception. We can’t forget silent springs and burning rivers (photo top), Love Canals or the gulf spills. Attempts to roll back environmental laws and agreements – some enacted decades ago with bipartisan support – can’t go unchecked. Which safeguard enacted to protect life and property is too much? Should billionaire-funded anti-regulatory agendas trump civil rules designed to benefit mankind?

Conservation, restoration, green infrastructure, clean energy, and smart public expenditure pay huge social and economic dividends:

Fighting climate change fuels innovation. Research grows jobs. Cutting pollution reduces healthcare costs. Creating open space and public amenities retains and attracts a motivated, productive workforce. Sustainability nurtures hope.


Other countries will build the renewable energy future if we don’t. They already are. We can be in the top tier or risk sliding into a dirty and dangerous, carbon-dependent oblivion. If that sounds alarmist, take a look at the basic impacts we’ve seen from fossil fuel extraction and distribution nationwide. Hundreds of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells lay strewn across the country, 200,000 in Pennsylvania alone. Thousands of miles of streams have been contaminated by coal mining. Volatile and potentially explosive oil trains and pipelines pass by our homes, across sacred tribal lands, and through highly populated cities. Refineries pollute the very air we breathe. Degradation and injustice is un-American.

These strange and troubling times require a loud and unified chorus. Roosevelt said “It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.”

There is no choice but to resist. And we will.

On a Dark Road to Nowhere – By Brook Lenker, Executive Director, FracTracker Alliance


Feature Image Credit: Cleveland State University Library. The Cuyahoga River is a river in the United States, located in Northeast Ohio, that feeds into Lake Erie. The river is famous for having been so polluted that it “caught fire” in 1969. The event helped to spur the environmental movement in the US – via Wikipedia

For Persevere Post

A request from FracTracker Alliance: Help us persevere in fighting for a safer energy future

As 2016 comes to a close, our earth and all of its inhabitants face grave challenges. In the past year, climate change has demonstrated its foreboding consequences with frightening vigor, while the US President-elect seems determined to derail every measure put into place to address the unfolding climate crisis.

We – you and I – must protect the planet. It is time to be audacious, and we need your help.

In the past year, FracTracker Alliance provided critical mapping and analytical support to organizations across the country. We collaborated with:

  • Earthworks and Clean Air Task Force to create the Oil and Gas Threat Map
  • Natural Resources Defense Council to identify at-risk Latino populations near drilling sites
  • The Center for Biological Diversity to map red-cockaded woodpecker habitat in Mississippi imperiled by oil and gas activities
  • National Parks Conservation Association to document extraction concerns around Mesa Verde National Park
  • River Network to study energy and infrastructure impacts to the waters of the Great Lakes
  • Sane Energy to help them improve their interactive “You Are Here” map
  • Western Organization of Resource Councils to examine the disposal of radioactive fracking waste in several western states

In Pennsylvania, we’re working with Mountain Watershed Association to map zoning as a tool to limit or preclude drilling. In New York, we’re aiding Hudson Riverkeeper to address pipeline projects threatening the historic Hudson. In Colorado, we helped Coloradans Against Fracking and Our Longmont warn the public about a proposal to drill next to Bella Romero Elementary School. In California, we provided robust insights about human health concerns around the Richmond refineries. These are only a few of the ways FracTracker supports advocacy and research. Working together, we make a difference!

We appreciate the many brave people and bold organizations fighting for a better energy future. They need your support, and so does FracTracker. Please consider making a year-end donation to our Fund! To sustain our meaningful, empowering work, we need you!

Another way that you can help is to tell your friends, families and colleagues about FracTracker and the work that we do. Over 650,000 people have visited the FracTracker website, and we want millions more to follow. Our robust information informs perspectives and catalyzes action. In the past year, our efforts have been mentioned in 150 media outlets around the globe, from local newspapers such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, to popular press outlets like Grist, to international news sources such as Bloomberg, The Guardian and the Spanish-language El Nuevo Herald.

Our recent national pipeline analysis shows that since 2010, 4,215 pipeline incidents have occurred that resulted in 100 reported fatalities, 470 injuries and property damage in excess of $3.4 billion. These recurring, high-risk impacts underscore the folly of fossil fuel reliance. There’s a better way forward, which we showcase in the Pennsylvania Clean Energy Map that we developed for E2’s “Our Energy Renewal” project; this map locates every business in PA that is involved in renewable energy or energy efficiency. There are a thousand more ways for FracTracker to benefit the better energy movement – a movement that benefits all of us – and we need your support to do it.

I close this letter with heartfelt thanks to our partners, followers, donors, funders, staff and board members. You are the energy that moves us forward, and together we have made great strides. I wish you, and everyone pulling for our beautiful blue planet, my warmest regards for a peaceful and restorative holiday. May wisdom and goodwill reign in the New Year!

Sincerely,
Sig2

Brook Lenker
Executive Director

Brook Lenker, Executive Director, FracTracker

Staff Spotlight: Brook Lenker

As the last article in our staff spotlight series, learn more about Executive Director, Brook Lenker, and how his early environmental work in Pennsylvania brought him to FracTracker Alliance.

Time with FracTracker: 5 years

Education: I graduated from Towson University near Baltimore in 1989 with a degree in geography and environmental planning. I loved the course of study so much that I enrolled in the graduate school and worked on my master’s degree in the same field.

Office Location: Camp Hill, PA

Title: Executive Director

What do you actually do in that role?

From my office in Camp Hill, I lead a wonderful, talented team of eight staff working from five locations around the country. My role is to make sure FracTracker has the strategic direction, staff capacity, financial resources, and board leadership to be effective, impactful.

Previous Positions and Organizations

YBWA cleanup 2013 Brook on creek

Brook during a creek cleanup

While I was evening commuting to Maryland, I served as program director for a county recreation department in Central Pennsylvania. Later, I landed a position with the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, eventually becoming the Director of Watershed Stewardship. The activities we coordinated – river sojourns, stream and habitat restoration, stormwater education, and more – took me around the multi-state watershed even though I was based in Harrisburg.

My next stop was the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources where for over seven years I served as the Manager of Education and Outreach. My responsibilities included community relations and promoting ecological awareness and stewardship. A program called iConservePA was a focal point. My colleagues and I used creative communications strategies to encourage Pennsylvanians to “Take Conservation Personally.” This and other agency initiatives suffered when fracking began to boom.

How did you first get involved working on oil and gas issues / fracking?

As I became demoralized by the degradation I witnessed and read about, I was given the chance to direct FracTracker. I took the reins in late 2011 as the website transitioned out of the University of Pittsburgh. By the summer of 2012, we formed the nonprofit FracTracker Alliance, and I became its executive director. Sometimes things happen for a reason.

It’s hard to believe I’ve been at the helm of FracTracker for nearly five years. Knowing that we’re a helpful force in the fight against the harms of extraction is rewarding. The projects and the people with whom I interact are inspiring. While the challenges facing our planet are daunting and, at times, depressing, I’m lucky to be able to exercise my convictions in the workplace.

What is one of the most impactful projects that you have been involved in with FracTracker?

Brook Lenker in Argentina

Brook Lenker in Argentina

It’s been an unforgettable journey so far. I’ve learned so much and met so many great people – from different states and different countries. Perhaps my greatest experience to date was a tour to Argentina in May 2015. Alongside reps from Ecologic Institute and Earthworks, we presented to hundreds of people at different venues including the senate of Argentina. As I spoke of the insights of FracTracker and other researchers, an interpreter put my words into Spanish. I felt overwhelmingly humble and grateful.

Environmental injustice knows no bounds, but good people everywhere make a profound difference.

Karen Edelstein and her partner in Hawaii

Staff Spotlight: Karen Edelstein

As part of our staff spotlight series, learn more about Karen Edelstein and how her work through FracTracker has changed the course of drilling in New York State.

Time with FracTracker: I started with FracTracker in 2010 as a contract employee and then in 2012 started working 25 hours a week as a regular part-time staffer.

Education: M.P.S. in Environmental Management, and B.S. in Natural Resources, both from Cornell University

Office Location: Ithaca, NY

Title: Eastern Program Coordinator

What do you actually do in that role?

My job has changed a lot since I started working for FracTracker. I came to FracTracker when many New Yorkers were frantically learning as much as they could about unconventional drilling for natural gas, which at the time, appeared likely to start happening in the near future. Over a period of years, using credible public data, I have created dozens of maps on topics about geology, water withdrawals, waste transportation, hydrocarbon storage, and documenting the surging movements of public opposition to high-volume hydraulic fracturing for gas. The maps were informative to a wide range of decision-makers, environmental advocates, educators, and citizens.

Now, I’m working more broadly on projects up and down the East Coast. These projects include documenting controversies surrounding pipelines and other oil and gas infrastructure, and the public opposition to this development. I also support FracTracker’s mission to educate and report on the alternatives to fossil fuel infrastructure, and have been looking at renewable energy issues, as well.

Previous Positions and Organizations

Over the past 16 years, I’ve used geographic information systems in positions at numerous environmental and educational organizations, working for land trusts and other nonprofit agencies, secondary school teacher development programs, and county government agencies. Prior to that, I worked as a naturalist and environmental educator for ten years.

How did you first get involved working on oil and gas issues / fracking?

Karen Edelstein, August 2016

Karen Edelstein, FracTracker’s Eastern Program Coordinator

I live in a rural area of New York State that was in the cross-hairs of the oil and gas industry about 9 years ago. Landsmen were at the door asking me to lease my land, “thumper trucks” were pounding the roads trying to get seismic readings, and helicopters were overhead dropping bundles of equipment to conduct testing. Few people, including me, understood the enormity of what was going on. I joined a few community groups that wanted to know more.

Shortly after a multi-year work contract I had at a local college ended, in 2010, I met the (then small) staff of FracTracker at a public training event in Central New York. The organization had just been formed, and the presentation was all about mapping in Pennsylvania. I went right up to the director and told him how much we needed similar work in New York State, and I could be the person to do it! I started working part-time for FracTracker within the month.

What is one of the most impactful projects that you have been involved in with FracTracker?

Our map of New York State bans and moratoria on high volume hydraulic fracturing received a great deal of attention in the years leading up to the eventual statewide ban on the process. Over time, close to 200 municipalities enacted legislation. It was rewarding to document this visually through a progression of dozens of maps during that period. These maps of how municipality after municipality invoked New York State home rule provided important touchstones for community activists, too. In late 2014, in their announcement about the decision to ban HVHF in NYS, New York’s Health and Environment commissioners cited FracTracker’s map as an indication of patterns of strong ambivalence towards the process among state residents:

Together DEC’s proposed restrictions and local bans and moratoria total approximately 7.5 million acres, or about 63% of the resource. Here’s a summary of the local government restrictions and prohibitions. And the picture even gets cloudier. The practical impact of the Dryden decision I mentioned earlier is that even more acreage may be off-limits to HVHF drilling. Within the 4.5 million acres NOT excluded by the state or local restrictions, approximately 253 towns have zoning and 145 have no zoning. Each town with zoning would have to determine whether its current law restricts or even allows HVHF. So those towns without zoning would still have to decide whether to allow HVHF virtually anywhere or to prescribe where drilling could occur. The uncertainty about whether HVHF is an authorized use would undoubtedly result in additional litigation. It would also result in a patchwork of local land use rules which industry has claimed would utterly frustrate the rational development of the shale resource. Clearly the court’s decision shifted the battleground to town boards, to as evidenced by the conflicting claims of the opposing stakeholder groups. According to the Joint Landowners Coalition, many towns in the Southern Tier have passed resolutions favoring HVHF, while the online map from FracTracker.org indicates that many of the same towns are moving toward a ban. Indeed, our own informal outreach to towns in the Southern Tier confirms that even towns that support HVHF decisions are still up in the air. I’d say that the prospects for HVHF development in NY are uncertain, at best.

Bill Hughes giving tour to students in shale fields, WV

A Cross-Country Ride to Support Oil and Gas Tours in West Virginia

Bill Hughes giving tours of gas fields in West Virginia. Photo by Joe Solomon. https://flic.kr/s/aHskkXZj3z

Bill Hughes giving a tour of gas fields in West Virginia. Photo by Joe Solomon.

As many of you know, educating the public is a FracTracker Alliance core value – a passion, in fact. In addition to our maps and resources, we help to provide hands-on education, as well. The extraordinary Bill Hughes is a FracTracker partner who has spent decades “in the trenches” in West Virginia documenting fracking, well pad construction, water withdrawals, pipeline construction, accidents, spills, leaks, and various practices of the oil and gas industry. He regularly leads tours for college students, reporters, and other interested parties, showing them first-hand what these sites look, smell, and sound like.

While most of us have heard of fracking, few of us have seen it in action or how it has changed communities. The tours that Bill provides allow students and the like to experience in person what this kind of extraction means for the environment and for the residents who live near it.

Biking to Support FracTracker and Bill Hughes

Dave Weyant at the start of his cross-country bike trip in support of WV tours

Dave Weyant at the start of his cross-country Pedal for the Planet bike trip

In the classic spirit of non-profit organizations, we work in partnership with others whenever possible. Right now, as you read this posting, another extraordinary Friend of FracTracker, Dave Weyant (a high school teacher in San Mateo, CA), is finishing his cross-country cycling tour – from Virginia to Oregon in 70 days.

Dave believes strongly in the power of teaching to reach the hearts of students and shape their thinking about complicated issues. As such, he has dedicated his journey to raising money for FracTracker. He set up a GoFundMe campaign in conjunction with his epic adventure, and he will donate whatever he raises toward Bill’s educational tours.

Help us celebrate Dave Weyant’s courage, vision, and generosity – and support Bill Hughes’s tireless efforts to open eyes, evoke awareness, and foster communication about fracking – by visiting Dave’s GoFundMe page and making a donation. Every gift of any size is most welcome and deeply appreciated.

100% of the funds raised from this campaign will go to support Bill’s oil and gas tours in West Virginia. FracTracker Alliance is a registered 501(c)3 organization. Your contribution is tax deductible.

And to those of you who have already donated, thank you very much for your support!

Matthew Kelso and colleagues during discussions before a Senate meeting in Argentina

Staff Spotlight: Matthew Kelso

As part of FracTracker’s staff spotlight series, learn more about Matthew Kelso and why he works with FracTracker Alliance to analyze data from the oil and gas industry.

Time with FracTracker: I’ve been working with FracTracker since June 2010, when it was still a part of the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities (CHEC) at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health.

Nickname: Matt

Education: Humboldt State University

Office Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Title: Manager of Data and Technology

What do you actually do in that role?

I make oil and gas data more accessible and more digestible to the general public. Largely, this is accomplished by converting spreadsheets into maps and charts to see what stories are hidden in the data. I’ve found that many people have an easier time processing impacts visually, so seeing a map with wells and violations in areas that they are familiar with will have a different effect on them than reading the same data in a huge spreadsheet that was downloaded from some regulatory agency or another.

I also work with other nonprofits to help them with their data and mapping needs.

Previous Position and Organization

As mentioned above, I worked for the University of Pittsburgh from 2010 to 2012, when FracTracker was a program at CHEC. Before that, I’ve worked as an archaeologist in the Southwest, a casino auditor, and an AmeriCorps member.

How did you first get involved working on oil and gas issues / fracking?

Environmental consciousness is something that has evolved over time for me. My family moved to Pittsburgh when I was a kid at a time when the city was busy sandblasting the soot off of iconic buildings and other landmarks all over town that had been left by over a century of steelmaking and other heavy industry. Then, I went to college in California at a time when Julia “Butterfly” Hill lived in an old-growth redwood for two years to protect it from being cut down. As an archaeologist, I spent my days looking for evidence of how people from a previous time had interacted with the environment around them. But my interest in oil and gas issues in particular really began by watching the footage of the Deepwater Horizon disaster on TV, then coming to the realization that similar – if smaller – spills and contamination events were happening all over the place.

What is one of the most impactful projects that you have been involved in with FracTracker?

To my way of thinking, the true impact of the FracTracker Alliance is varied and cumulative, much in the way that oil and gas development itself impacts people’s lives. It is useful for people to hear that a pipeline leak in Santa Barbara, an oil train explosion in Lac-Mégantic, deforestation due to sand mine development in Wisconsin, well explosions in North Dakota, ground water contamination in Pennsylvania, and pipeline operators taking land away from people using eminent domain in Texas are all phenomena related to oil and gas extraction. Even though they may be dealing with a variety of issues at the local level, the impacts of development are widespread, and one of FracTracker’s biggest impacts is reminding people of the interconnected nature of the industry.

If I were to choose just one project that I was involved in, however, I would have to say the analysis of people living within a half-mile of train tracks in Pennsylvania that we did with PennEnvironment. The project really brought into focus the damage that oil trains could incur if they happen to explode in densely populated regions throughout the state.

Brook Lenker, Matthew Kelso, and intern Gianna Calisto counting oil trains as they passed through Pittsburgh, PA

Brook Lenker, Matt Kelso, and intern Gianna Calisto counting oil trains as they passed through Pittsburgh, PA

Feature image: Matt Kelso and colleagues prior to Senate meeting in Argentina

Staff Spotlight: Kyle Ferrar

As part of our staff spotlight series, learn more about Kyle Ferrar and why he works with FracTracker Alliance to conduct and communicate research on the public health impacts associated with the oil and gas / fossil fuel industry.  

Time with FracTracker: I’ve been working with FracTracker since its inception in 2010, and started as an official staff member in July, 2014.

Nickname: Ky

Education: BS from the University of Pittsburgh; and MPH from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, where I am currently a DrPH candidate.

Office Location: I have an office in downtown Oakland, CA.

Title: Western Program Coordinator

What do you actually do in that role?

My major role as the Western Program Coordinator consists of a variety of responsibilities of operating a FracTracker Alliance branch office. In addition to the contributions of analyses and research that is documented on FracTracker’s California (and other western states’) page, my activities include fundraising, community outreach, and acting as an expert adviser on public health impacts for policy makers, regulators, other research institutions, at conferences, and directly to the public.

Kyle Ferrar spotlight image

Kyle Ferrar (right) taking water samples

Previous Position and Organization

My previous research as a staff member with the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities (CHEC) at the University of Pittsburgh focused on public health impacts from various sectors of the fossil fuel industry, including Marcellus Shale development. In the picture to the right, you can see a CHEC colleague and I collecting water samples from the Allegheny River, next to a coal fired power plant.

How did you first get involved working on oil and gas issues / fracking?

As a steward to my local environment in Southwestern Pennsylvania, I was alerted of the concerns many residents were feeling as a result of the rapid increase of industrial presence in rural Pennsylvania resulting from Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction. The connections our CHEC had made in the past using community based participatory research methods to address and study other sources of environmental degradation were a vital resource for understanding what was really happening – on the ground.

What is one of the most impactful projects that you have been involved in with FracTracker?

The majority of my time is spent working on my computer, and cleaning and massaging datasets in spreadsheets. This is necessary and important, but incredibly tedious and far-removed. One project in 2015 that started this way, as most do, became much more personal. Working with a group called Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment, we identified the fact that Hispanic students and other students of color are more likely to attend schools near active oil and gas wells than white students. This was also true for hydraulically fractured (stimulated) oil and gas wells. Now, no student should have to go to school near this type of activity, but California does not have minimum setback requirements for schools or any other sensitive sites.

Meeting and working with the families of the students – and the students themselves that attend schools in the midst of the oil and gas wastelands – drives me to continue working for a future free from the fossil-fuel industry. No child should have to go to school near oil and gas fields to get an education. And as is typically the case, non-white and Hispanic communities in California bear the heaviest burden.

Check back soon to read the analysis described above. It will be the focus of my next blog piece.

Feature Image: Kyle Ferrar (left) with colleagues from CRPE