Contentious baselining: The politics of “pre-drilling” environmental measures in shale gas territory

Abstract

Ignorance about baseline conditions can be advantageous to companies that are suspected of causing environmental harm, because it allows them to claim that perhaps the degradation was a pre-existing problem. In the case of Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction in Pennsylvania (USA), gas well operators have created strategic ignorance about and through baselines in at least two ways: (1) drawing attention to weaknesses in the documentation of past environmental states and (2) controlling access to data that was collected in the past. This case further reveals that ordinary individuals and environmental organizations have taken an active interest in producing environmental baselines, separate from any formal regulatory process that might call for them. However, public participation in baselining does not occur on a level playing field, and it is a weak strategy for holding polluters accountable.

Household Water Security: An Analysis of Water Affect in the Context of Hydraulic Fracturing in West Virginia, Appalachia

“…This study adds to the growing body of critical scholarship on water and hydraulic fracturing in Appalachia and the Marcellus Shale [13,63,76]. Additional studies focusing on the Marcellus region have noted how individuals come to feel alienation rather than attachment to water due to natural gas extraction [63] and the gendered uncertainty and injustices around public health impacts [8].…”

“…take baseline water test pre-drilling, and subsequent water tests, to determine oil and gas companies' liability if and when the water quality changes. However, these industry-generated water quality data are not made available to the public or to researchers [70,76]. The general lack of specific data about water contamination levels around oil and gas extraction is because oil and gas extraction is exempt from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which leads to industry and state practices of not disclosing water quality data [77].…”

“…Although water testing can show when contamination occurs post-drilling, water testing does not always lead to company responsibility, because companies may contest aspects of presumed liability and rely on unknowns about water quality [76]. Presumed liability legislation does not hold companies liable if the landowner did not allow the company to take a pre-drilling test, if the water supply is beyond the presumed liability distance of 1500 feet of the well, if changes happen after 6 months, or if another cause (i.e., land use change, legacy industrial contaminants) can be identified.…”

“…There are tensions between the industry's regulatory compliance and understanding of risk, and residents' understanding of risk to water and their desire for protection from this risk. Whereas oil and gas companies see their role as complying with regulations by producing objective baseline water tests [76], residents see how baselining is contentious [76] and how they bear the brunt of water contamination that can impact every facet of their everyday lives. In this sense, the tensions between industry experts and residents reflect tensions documented in other contexts, in which experts construct environmental hazards as solvable with technical solutions, which contrast with perspectives that encompass social, cultural and discursive factors to water hazards [19].…”

Strategic translation: pollution, data, and Indigenous Traditional Knowledge

“…A growing body of work on public participation in science and the politics of measurement (Brown 1997; Frickel et al . 2010; Gabrys, Pritchard & Barratt 2016; Kimura 2016; Kinchy 2020; Kinchy, Parks & Jalbert 2016; Lave 2012; Li 2009; Matz, Wylie & Kriesky 2017; Ottinger 2010) shows that, just like analysis, measurement is not a neutral act. The practices through which data is collected are informed by the social and political context where the science is being carried out as well as by the assumptions and positionality of the scientists themselves.…”