New Series Takes a Close Look at Fracking, Relationship between State, Landowners in Ohio Valley

On this West Virginia Morning, a decade ago, not many people had heard much about fracking for natural gas. Since then, the gas industry has literally changed the landscape in northern West Virginia, southern Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. 

For some people, that has meant new jobs or payments to lease their land. But the thousands of new well pads, pipelines, compressor stations, and waste injection wells haven’t been welcomed by everyone. Thousands of complaints have been filed with the state about everything from gas leaks and crumbling roads to odors and noise people blame on energy development.

In a special series called Who’s Listening, The Allegheny Front’s Julie Grant looks at some of the claims made by Ohio residents, and how state regulators have responded. In part one, an Ohio family sells their farm, saying they feel abandoned by the state, and the money they’ve made from the industry hasn’t been worth the costs.

Also on today’s show, newly released data show drug manufacturers and distributors flooded the country with 76 billion opioid pain pills between 2006 and 2012. The company information was recently unsealed in a court case that ties the drugs to the opioid crisis. As Aaron Payne reports, Ohio Valley communities were awash in opioid medications.

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Support for our news bureaus comes from West Virginia University, Concord University, and Shepherd University.