Entries by FracTracker Alliance

Life and Times of Loyalsock

By Brook Lenker, Executive Director, and Samantha Malone, Manager of Science and Communications It’s so quiet you can hear moss squish underfoot and the tapping of a woodpecker a quarter-mile distant. These are the sounds of a lesser-known Pennsylvania Wilds, the lush woodlands and rock-studded beauty of the  Loyalsock State Forest.  Picture a pristine landscape […]

Incidents continue to make headlines during drilling slowdown

Although drilling activity in some areas of PA seems to have slowed due to the lower price of natural gas ($2.82 per MMBtu), the decline in violations cited by the PA DEP have not followed that trend as quickly as one would hope. There have still been plenty of incidents over the last few months […]

Request for Papers:  Special Issue of the ASCE Journal of Environmental Engineering

Topic: Environmental Aspects of Shale Gas Development Submission Deadline:  September 30, 2012 Guest Editors: Jeanne VanBriesen, Carnegie Mellon University Michel Boufadel, Temple University Unconventional gas in tight shales like the Barnett, the Marcellus, and the Eagle Ford formations is changing the view of domestic natural gas supply. Directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing has opened up new […]

FracTracker Seeking OH Program Coordinator

The FracTracker Alliance was recently awarded funding from the George Gund Foundation to support an Ohio office and staff person for our organization. We are very excited about this opportunity to intensify our outreach and analytical work in Ohio and collaborate with other organizations who are grappling with the growing impacts of the shale gas […]

Duke Study Prompts Confusing Headlines

If you are like me and start your morning work routine by scrolling through the daily Marcellus Shale news with a good cup of coffee, then you are probably just as confused as the rest of us about the recent Duke University study results regarding shale gas drilling. Just take a look at the list […]

A Mosaic of Recent Activity

Summer is a time to vacation, barbecue, and enjoy the great outdoors. In case you have been partaking in summer fun and missed recent drilling news, information, and events, check out the summaries below compiled by the folks at FracTracker with input from many sources including Edward Kokkelenberg: PA DEP Data Changes Until June 2012, […]

Surveying Unassessed Waters in PA

According to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC), only 22,000 of the 86,000 miles of flowing water in PA have been sampled by biologists from their organization. As of 2011, about 12,800 miles were designated as wild trout waters. (It is hard to believe that we have so many streams to begin with!) In recent […]

Drilling Health Concerns and Research Covered at IOM Event

By Samantha L. Malone, MPH, CPH – Communications Specialist, FracTracker & DrPH Student, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health department Last week I attended the Institute of Medicine’s Workshop on The Health Impact Assessment of New Energy Sources: Shale Gas Extraction in Washington, DC. This was part of a […]