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

Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing has been booming in the last decade in the United States. While natural gas extraction and production has improved the national energy security, it has raised questions around the water security of those communities where extraction is taking place. Both scientists and residents are concerned about hydraulic fracturing’s impacts on surface- and groundwater, especially regarding how hydraulic fracturing impacts residents’ access to safe household well water. In the past decade, the Marcellus Shale has been developed in Northwestern West Virginia, yet the human geography dimensions of oil and gas extraction in West Virginia remain to be investigated. This article, based on 30 in-depth interviews, explores household groundwater insecurity due to hydraulic fracturing experienced by residents (i.e., mineral owners, surface owners, and concerned citizens) in Northwestern West Virginia. The concept of water affect is used to attend to the emotional and subjective dimensions of water security by unveiling the power, emotional struggles, and mental stress inherent in water testing practices and environmental regulation around hydraulic fracturing. Water testing is typically conducted by contractors hired by oil and gas companies, but it is mired in delayed test results and incorrect testing procedures, triggering residents’ negative feelings toward oil and gas companies. This article furthers the understanding of water security, commonly defined in terms of individual access to adequate water quality and quantity, by studying Appalachian residents’ anxieties about well water contamination and uncertainty around the long-term water impacts of hydraulic fracturing. By investigating the uneven power relations around groundwater in West Virginia, the emotional experiences and responses are articulated to further the notion of water affect as impacting household groundwater security.

Assessing Exposure to Unconventional Oil and Gas Development: Strengths, Challenges, and Implications for Epidemiologic Research

“…In addition, participant self-reported housing damage has shown strong correlation with cumulative ground motion assessed from shakemaps (i.e., visual displays of ground shaking occurring at different locations immediately after an earthquake). In terms of UOGD, residents have also reported on observable changes to their air or water, such as odors, change in the color, appearance, turbidity, or foaming of their drinking water [ 16 , 30 , 78 ].…”

“…With more than 9 million people in the USA relying on drinking-water sources located within 1.6 km (1 mile) from a UOG well [ 9 ], water contamination from UOGD has been a major community concern [ 15 , 16 ]. Hundreds of chemicals have been reportedly used in injection water or detected in wastewater, including known and suspected endocrine disruptors and carcinogens, such as metals, volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phthalates, and per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) [ 9 , 17 – 23 ].…”

From a rural idyll to an industrial site: an analysis of hydraulic fracturing energy sprawl in Central Appalachia

“…All cumulative 90 interviews -ranging from 45 to 90 minutes -were transcribed and analyzed in the qualitative data software NVivo. For this paper, we focus on the codes of 'land,' 'landscape,' 'erosion,' 'home,' 'rural,' and 'livelihood' (for additional studies see Brock Carlson & Caretta, in print; Turley & Caretta, 2020).…”

“…With the quick appearance of industrial and extractive infrastructure, participants stressed that their sense of security, embodied in their homes and peaceful surroundings, had disappeared just as quickly. In addition to the sights and sounds of industrial development combined with dramatic changes in the landscape, participants reported that they were unsettled by the possibility of pollution, water contamination, and even explosions due to this infrastructure near their property (see also Turley & Caretta, 2020).…”

Critical Water Geographies: From Histories to Affect

“…The theme of disempowerment at the hands of technocracy evoked above by Aijaz and Akhter (2020), takes center stage in Turley and Caretta's (2020) [7] account of household water security in the context of hydraulic fracturing in West Virginia, Appalachia in the United States. Weaving their account around the concept of water security as time and place specific and constituting the three essential dimensions of water access, quality and affect, i.e., emotional, cultural and subjective experience of water, Turley and Caretta (2020) focus in on how drinking water quality concerns around hydro-fracking in West Virginia intersect with water affect.…”