Interesting, since there is controversy on industry funded university research on fracking already.

SUNY Buffalo shuts down newly formed Shale Resources and Society Institute.

In October Penn State Fracking study ends.

Meanwhile, in September, Forbes ignored the previous industry-paid controversial university research to call for more university research.

On the other hand, I was talking with a real estate agent in PA who works in an area that has been greatly fracked. She said homes near fracked areas are not selling at all, people are afraid to buy homes where wells have been, or may be contaminated.

Fracking doesn't just destroy the land, it has far-reaching consequences.

Before the first frack occurs, UT should first get the lucky company that gets the contract to disclose the chemicals they use. Because of Cheney's sweetheart nod to his former company Haliburton, it's something we still don't know.

Wonder if they'll 'study' trade secrets?

What concerns me about the study is the locale and the lack of call for volunteers. A study of this type would by definition require an extensive inventory of biological diversity with particular emphasis on pollution sensitive species and an extensive inventory of groundwater flow and quality. I doubt either of these exist in the test area. I'd like to see the test methodology extensively reported and critiqued both by local citizens whose lives may be impacted and the scientific community including all the disciplines that could have an impact (hydrologists, biologists, geologists etc.).

It would almost appear that the location of the study was picked because of its remote nature (the same reason Brushy Mountain Prison was located in the area) and low risk of consequence should the study prove to be an abject failure and watersheds and groundwater flows were destroyed by toxic chemicals.

This experiment has the potential to extensively damage The Obed, New, Clinch and Emory River watersheds. Depending on the chemicals used, the watersheds could require thousands of years to recover and all four rivers could be rendered unfit for any sort of human use i.e. irrigation, drinking water, recreation, commercial fishing, scientific study etc. I'm skeptical.

The plus side is that a can of propane could drop from fifteen to twelve dollars a fill-up making it somewhat cheaper to grill hamburgers.

There is no other word for it. It is disgusting.

Don't forget that TVA already destroyed Swan Pond in Roane County with the coal ash spill.

(I know that TVA and UT are not the same but both seem to think they are above natural laws and earth balance.)

My point is we have to quit destroying our nest. (the old saying is shitting our nest, I believe...)

In a way, this reminds me of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.

The Tuskegee syphilis experiment (also known as the Tuskegee syphilis study or Public Health Service syphilis study) was an infamous clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama by the U.S. Public Health Service to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in poor, rural black men who thought they were receiving free health care from the U.S. government.

There's probably a lot of routine coal extracting that's at least as bad and I suppose this is ostensibly being done in the name of science, but this would only reveal problems when "good" fracking practices are employed. How would they know if the fracking done here will be representative of the way it is commonly done? I'm concerned there's an "old west" environment now, where extractors are going nuts getting gas out and few, if any, regulations or regulators. Some water well quality and seismic problems are said to be attributed to so-called bad actors practicing improper "bad" fracking practices.

And as they're overdrilling capacity and the price falls as much as it has, how much leaking and uncapped lines are there before new wells are properly leak free? It's cheap to just leave them open until they can deal with them.

Also, how long after fracking is complete is an acceptable time to study the area before being reasonably certain of long term effects? The geology of one region is probably not indicative of the entire country for latent issues.

Still, we all act as though we aren't the ones using fossil fuels or somehow shouldn't be responsible for any environmental risks, which are inevitable.

I would rather see them frack the UT Dairy Farm.

Interesting you mention the U.T. dairy farm.

If I'm not mistaken, they closed down the one near campus (that was making them money from dairy production, not to mention whatever research they were doing there) to build a golf course. There are lots of golf courses in the Knoxville area (23 public and private by my count). Seems like they could have contracted with one or two of them for a lot less than building their own, which seems to be taking forever.

I guess fracking will make up for the lost revenue, help pay for the golf course, and maybe have some left over to pay a new football coach.

I thought that thing was supposed to be open to area junior golfers. What happened with that?

There is no way to justify a facility like that for the exclusive use of twenty people.

Edit: I'm not totally to blame for this post ending up in a fracking thread. I was lured.

Univ of Texas study was a farce. (link...)
"...The fracking study is now a black eye to the University of Texas after an independent review of national experts found it scientifically unsound and tainted by conflicts of interest. The author of the study, Dr. Charles Groat, retired in the wake of the scathing review, and the university announced that Dr. Raymond Orbach, head of the university's Energy Institute that released the study, has resigned his position.

The original fracking study concluded that hydraulic fracturing was safe, the danger of water contamination low and suggestions to the contrary mostly media bias. But then it was reported this summer that Professor Groat sat on the board of a natural gas drilling company and received more than a million and a half dollars in compensation. That information was not disclosed in Groat's report..."

(link...)

This by way of TN Guerilla Women. Thanks to them.