WV Host Farms Program
Note: During the month of October, 2014 we will be working hard to complete major additions and updates to this website. Please check back, as we are planning to upload hundreds more pictures in slide show format as well as video clips, and research reports from universities. Please check back often in the coming weeks, while we work hard to expand our website.
The WV Host Farms Program is a volunteer-based grass roots initiative. It is a program that connects WV landowners with the environmental community who desire to study Marcellus gas drilling & fracking at ground zero.
Our network of volunteers are located in more than a dozen counties throughout WV. Participating landowners give access to their private properties so that university researchers, students, environmental journalists, photographers, public policy decision makers, public health professionals, and environmental education and advocacy organizations can document and evaluate the impacts of the "unconventional" natural gas drilling method known as slick water, high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracturing. |
WV Host Farms Program is an initiative that gives access to environmental and pubic health researchers who study shale gas drilling/fracking. |
Staff members from OHVEC (Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition) pose for a photo during a recent tour given by volunteers from WV Host Farms Program and Wetzel County Action Group. OHVEC has worked for many years addressing environmental and health concerns associated with mountain top removal mining operations. They are also focusing their efforts toward advocating for communities that are adversely affected by fracking and other shale gas production activities.
Our program makes it possible for researchers to have unfettered access to locations in WV by studying on the private property of our participating landowners. Many of our volunteers are landowners who have shale gas drilling on or adjacent to their properties. Others live next to or near gas processing facilities such as natural gas compressor stations/extraction plants.
Landowners in our program are willing to "host" visitors on their private property who come
to do environmental research and to document how shale gas drilling is affecting
our rural WV communities.
Carnegie Mellon University researchers have been working in Doddridge County during September and October, 2014 doing air quality sampling at a number of conventional and Marcellus wells. It is part of their grant funded research project headed by Dr. Albert Presto. WV Host Farms is grateful that they contacted us for access to locations for their testing . We are also grateful for our dedicated network of volunteer landowners. They are always willing to offer their farms for access, so as to enable shale gas drilling research to take place in WV !
How does shale gas drilling, impact rural West Virginia citizens' quality of life? Recently a photojournalist began documenting some of the stories from people whose quality of life had been adversely impacted when shale drilling surrounded their homes and farms. Watch the videos below to hear from some of those who feel they were adversely affected by drilling and fracking-related activities near their homes:
http://vimeo.com/106229667
http://keelykernan.com/frack-waste-injection-well-site-concerned-residents-in-the-fayette-plateau/
View our photo gallery page found on the menu bar to see images of shale gas drilling in West Virginia. Check back often, as we will be adding hundreds of photos collected over the past two years that show what shale drilling/fracking looks like in West Virginia. We feel that it is important to share these images and stories with the public so that people can gain a broader understanding of some of the risks to environment and public health that may be associated with this type of "unconventional" drilling.
http://vimeo.com/106229667
http://keelykernan.com/frack-waste-injection-well-site-concerned-residents-in-the-fayette-plateau/
View our photo gallery page found on the menu bar to see images of shale gas drilling in West Virginia. Check back often, as we will be adding hundreds of photos collected over the past two years that show what shale drilling/fracking looks like in West Virginia. We feel that it is important to share these images and stories with the public so that people can gain a broader understanding of some of the risks to environment and public health that may be associated with this type of "unconventional" drilling.