Hundreds of newly announced valley jobs could be affected by the results of an upcoming EPA investigation into the safety of gas drilling into underground shale deposits.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it will study potential human health and water quality threats from an oil and natural gas drilling technique that injects massive amounts of water, sand and chemicals underground.
Hydraulic fracturing, also known as "fracking," has become widespread and unlocked extensive natural gas reserves, but the
technique has raised concerns about environmental damage.
EPA said Thursday that its $1.9 million study, expected to be done by 2012, would look at the industry's affect on groundwater, surface water, human health and the environment more generally.
Drillers say the practice is safe, but concerns have mounted that unregulated fracking will taint drinking water, siphon off too much surface water, deplete aquifers and produce briny wastewater that can kill fish.
The Mahoning Valley recently became the beneficiary of hundreds of millions of dollars of investment, and hundreds of intended new jobs, from companies locating or expanding in the area to supply the growing gas drilling industry.
Eastern Ohio sits over the Marcellus Shale formation, an underground layer of shale thought to hold hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, currently accessed best through hydraulic fracturing.
