Entries by FracTracker Alliance

Where is public health at the Marcellus table?

Missing from the Table: Role of the Environmental Public Health Community in Governmental Advisory Commissions Related to Marcellus Shale Drilling Below is the abstract for an article submitted by Goldstein, Kriesky, and Pavliakova to Environmental Health Perspectives, a prestigious peer-reviewed journal about today’s most pressing environmental health issues. Or, download the entire article (PDF).  Note: […]

TOXMAP: Learn about toxic chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing

The National Library of Medicine’s TOXMAP now provides information on the toxic chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. Companies involved in hydraulic fracturing are not currently required to report to the US EPA Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program and so are not represented in TOXMAP. However, TOXMAP provides information on many of the most toxic chemicals used. […]

Animating Data: A Different Way to Look at Marcellus Shale Drilling

by Josh Knauer, CEO of Rhiza At Rhiza, we love to experiment with new ways of visualizing data that help tell better data stories. In most of our work environments, using data is kind of difficult and visualizing is usually left to data experts. We’d love to see a future where sharing data visualizations (maps, charts, explanations, […]

A discussion on regulation and safety

By Samantha Malone, MPH, CPH – DrPH Student in Environmental & Occupational Health; Communications Specialist for FracTracker.org As natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region of our country moves forward, people in many states are debating over the best ways to regulate the natural gas industry. I’m not going to get into the impact […]

Bradford County Wells Drilled Animation

One of the regular users, John Detwiler, recently took the mapping application that is part of the platform to an even greater level. He exported wells drilled data by year into Google Earth to create an animation of the shale gas wells drilled from 2007-11 in Bradford County, PA. Check it out:

Community Foundation for the Alleghenies Announces Director for its New FracTracker Fund

The Community Foundation for the Alleghenies has named a former state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources official to manage its newest fund, FracTracker.org, effective this week. Brook Lenker, who served as manager of education and outreach in the department for nearly eight years, will manage FracTracker.org staffing and operations; expand the website capabilities; coordinate […]

EPA: Fracking and Groundwater Contamination

The Internet is alive today after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a report that indicates hydraulic fracturing (used when drilling for natural gas in tight shale formations) can contaminate groundwater. Residents of Pavillion, WY have been complaining about the state of their groundwater for some time now. The draft EPA report lends credibility to their […]

Gas Lease Review by the New York Times

  The New York Times has collected more than 111,000 oil and gas leases and related documents through open records requests. Over 100,000 of the documents in the archive are from Tarrant County, Tex., roughly 3,200 are from New York, and the remainder are from states including Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. To see all of the leases that have been collected […]

Data.FracTracker User Survey

As FracTracker’s manager, the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health has created a brief online SurveyMonkey questionnaire (approximately 10 minutes). The purpose of this research is to determine whether and how people are using Data.FracTracker.org to make decisions surrounding natural gas drilling. If you are […]

Summary: GSPH Shale Gas Conference 2011

2nd Annual Health Effects of Shale Gas Extraction Conference Hosted by: University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health November 18, 2011 – Pittsburgh, PA Presentation Summaries (in presentation order below) | Conference Website | Presentation Videos | Photos (coming soon) Bernard D. Goldstein, MD  Emeritus Professor, University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, Environmental […]