"Researchers are starting to recognize that some of the long-term exposure to the air can also be a concern for human health risk, so this particular study is starting to look at that," Feezel says. "Because the boom is so early here in Ohio, researchers thought this was a great place to come, and they specifically targeted Carroll County because there are so many wells in such a small geographic area."
The University of Cincinnati completed a similar study on the drinking water wells in Carroll County and found no contamination due to fracking.
Feezel says researchers are looking for willing landowners in the area to place passive air sampling devices on their property. The devices are designed to collect chemical readings for air pollutants often associated with drilling.
"[Researchers] are going to seek a small number of locations where they're going to put passive samplers that are small devices that sit on fence posts or t-posts." he says. "They're targeting within a couple hundred yards of a shale gas pad, and they're specifically looking for those locations that are early in the drilling cycle so they can capture any variations that occur between the drilling, hydraulic fracturing, conversion of production or wells that are actually in production."
Citizens interested in participating or looking for more information on the new study, he says, can come to Carroll Concerned Citizens’ next meeting on January 7th at 9 p.m. in the Carrollton Church of Christ on Moody Avenue. |