On Thursday, October 17^th Kat Finneran worked with Bill Lyons and Carolyn Harding from local water rights group, Columbus Bill of Rights, to install remote water monitoring sensors along Alum Creek in the Upper Scioto Watershed. The group seeks to establish baseline levels for pollutants from hydraulic fracking and other oil and gas waste pumped into 13 different Class II injection wells placed upstream of the Columbus metro area in Delaware and Morrow County. Injected with millions of gallons of fracked “brine” waste, these contaminants can contain more than a thousand different chemicals, many of which are carcinogens, neurotoxins, and endocrine disrupters. Fracked waste is also radioactive, containing radium 226, 228 and other harmful radionucleotides. 

Part of Kat’s research is concerned with how grassroot citizen science is operationalized in order to monitor and hold the oil and gas industry accountable in Ohio. 

Read more about this ongoing community project here!

Special thanks to fellow graduate student Adam Tjoelker, for helping Kat access water waders to use on the trip through the Sharpe Field Lending Library!