Dr. Ted Auch, Great Lakes Program Coordinator

Ted’s primary responsibilities include photographing, mapping, and bringing to light data gaps associated with the waste, water, and land-use footprint of the unconventional oil and gas build-out across the Midwest/Great Lakes region of North America. Ted’s primary interests include frac sand mining, watershed security/resilience, the food-energy nexus, and oil and gas waste production, transport, and disposal.

Ted's most recent peer-review publications include:

1. 1. Palmer, R.C., Short, D., and Auch, W.E. 2019. The Human Right to Water and Unconventional Energy. In Regulating Water Security in Unconventional Oil and Gas, Eds. Buono, R.M., Gunn, E.L., McKay, Staddon, C., Springer, Chapter 3, Pgs. 39-67.

2. Bratman, E., W.A. Auch, and B. Stinchfield. 2020. Energy Independence, International Investment, and Self-Determination: The Environmental Justice Impact of the Unconventional Oil & Gas Industry in the Ohio River Valley. International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Conference 2019, Honolulu, March 25th-28th

3. Stinchfield, B., Bratman, E., and W.A. Auch. 2019. Energy Independence, International Investment, and Self-Determination: The Case of the US Shale Industry. International Security Studies Section (ISSS) of International Studies Association (ISA) and the International Security and Arms Control Section of APSA (IS) Annual Conference 2019, Denver, October 18th-19th

4. Auch, W.A., Yates, P., Albro, S. 2019. The Great Lakes Basin’s vacant land stock across eleven US and 3 Canadian cities. Target Journal: Journal of Urban Ecology. Spring, 2020.

5. Strube, J., Auch, W.E., et al. 2019. Pipelines in whose backyard? Socioeconomic and Demographic Characteristics of Areas with Proposed Pipeline Development in the United States. Target Journal: Rural Studies. Spring, 2020.

6. Palmer, R.C., Short, D., and Auch, W.E.2018. The Human Right to Water and Unconventional Energy. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 15(9), 1858.

His photography has appeared in the following:

1. “A Fracking-Driven Industrial Boom Renews Pollution Concerns in Pittsburgh”by Nick Cunningham, Yale Environment E360, March 21st, 2019

2. “Drilling Towards Disaster: Why U.S. Oil and Gas Expansion Is Incompatible with Climate Limits”by Oil Change International, January 16th, 2019

3. “Frackland: An Aerial Photo Essay of Fracking’s Impacts Across the Midwest”by Ted Auch, October 31st, 2018, Belt Magazine.

4. “To Frack or Not to Frack? How a Small New York Town’s Decision-Making Process Came up Short”, Ronald Fraser, Cheshire & Company Viewpoints Publishing, Inc., Fall, 2018

5. “How Fracking’s Appetite for Sand Is Devouring Rural Communities”, Thomas Pearson, SAPIENS, May, 4, 2018.

6. “First View of Well Explosion Inform Locals”, Lighthawk Journal, Soaring Higher, No. 547, Vol. 4, Issue 1

7. “When the Hills Are Gone: Frac Sand Mining and the Struggle for Community”by Thomas W. Pearson, University of Minnesota Press, Fall, 2017

8. “Fracking in Farm Fields: Soil Quality, Health Concerns Abound” by Maria Dimengo, ACRES Magazine, April, 2018

9. “The Ground Beneath us: Form the Oldest cities to the Last Wilderness, What Dirt Tells Us About Who We Are”by Paul Bogard, Little, Brown and Company, March 21st, 2017

Ted came to FracTracker after a successful stint as a Cleveland Botanical Garden postdoc fellow quantifying the Great Lakes Basin’s (GLB) vacant lot portfolio, constructing various Vacant Land Repurposing (VLR) scenario models, and working with institutions, urban planners, and community groups to understand the cost and benefits associated with VLR from an economic, social continuity, and environmental perspective. Prior to that, he completed a postdoc at Green Mountain College. Currently, Ted is also Adjunct Faculty at Cleveland State University.

Ted’s dissertation while finishing his PhD at the University of Vermont was titled “Modeling the interaction between climate, chemistry, and ecosystem fluxes at the global scale.” Prior to this work, Dr. Auch pursued an MS at Virginia Tech looking at the ecological effects of strip-mining and Mountain Top Removal (MTR) in West Virginia, southwest Virginia, and eastern Kentucky with a focus on soil ecology and plant diversity.

Outside of work, Ted is cultivating his interests in photography and guitar playing having just gone down the slide guitar rabbit hole. He is avid fan of all things jazz, Yankees, Phish, and FC Barcelona. Ted and his wife Julia are proud parents of an amazing, 6+-year-old, little man named Michael Leaf and 2-year-old Satchel Edward.

Address: The Dealership Co-Workspace, 3558 Lee Road, Shaker Heights, OH 44120
Phone: (802) 343-6771
Email: auch@fractracker.org

Read Ted's Staff Spotlight