Fracking Investigations Stir Questions, Fines

By Eliza Laubach

A test well drilled in North Carolina by state scientists this spring has suggested there may be natural gas beneath the Walnut Tree community, a majority African-American neighborhood that shares groundwater with the largest coal ash pond in the state. Laboratory analysis, yet to be funded, will determine the nature of the deposit and guide speculation for hydraulic fracturing in the region.

Oil and gas test wells in eastern Kentucky have increased speculation into whether the Rogersville shale is profitable to frack. Considering the link between fracking and earthquakes, scientists with the Kentucky Geological Survey are establishing baseline data by burying sensitive seismic activity monitoring devices this summer.

In Morgantown, W. Va., atop the Marcellus shale, a university fracking site will provide a long-term study of the light, noise, air and water pollution these sites emit. One of the drilling sites is dangerously close to the city’s water intake on the Monongahela River, environmental groups say.

Range Resources faces an $8.9 million fine for contaminating groundwater with methane near a fracking rig in Pennsylvania. This record fine, being challenged by the company, comes after a two-year dispute over this well with the state.