Social Vulnerability and Groundwater Vulnerability to Contamination From Unconventional Hydrocarbon Extraction in the Appalachian Basin

• Published in: Geohealth 2023-04, Vol.7 (4), p.e2022GH000758-n/a
• Main Authors: Soriano, Mario A., Warren, Joshua L., Clark, Cassandra J., Johnson, Nicholaus P., Siegel, Helen G., Deziel, Nicole C., Saiers, James E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abrupt/Rapid Climate Change; Air/Sea Constituent Fluxes; Air/Sea Interactions; Anoxic and Hypoxic Environments; Anoxic Environments; Anthropogenic Effects; Atmospheric; Atmospheric Composition and Structure; Atmospheric Effects; Atmospheric Processes; Avalanches; Benefit‐cost Analysis; Biogeosciences; Climate and Interannual Variability; Climate Change and Variability; Climate Dynamics; Climate Impact; Climate Impacts; Climate Variability; Climatology; Computational Geophysics; Contamination; Cryosphere; Decadal Ocean Variability; Disaster Risk Analysis and Assessment; Distributive justice; Drinking water; Earth System Modeling; Earthquake Ground Motions and Engineering Seismology; Effusive Volcanism; Environmental equity; Environmental justice; Explosive Volcanism; General Circulation; General or Miscellaneous; Geodesy and Gravity; Geohealth; Geological; Geospatial Data Applications for Environmental Justice; Global Change; Global Change from Geodesy; Gravity and Isostasy; Groundwater; Groundwater Hydrology; groundwater vulnerability; Health risks; Hydraulic fracturing; Hydrological Cycles and Budgets; Hydrology; Hypoxic Environments; Impacts of Global Change; Informatics; Injustice; Land/Atmosphere Interactions; Marine Geology and Geophysics; Mass Balance; Modeling; Mud Volcanism; Natural gas; Natural Hazards; Numerical Modeling; Numerical Solutions; Ocean influence of Earth rotation; Ocean Monitoring with Geodetic Techniques; Ocean/Atmosphere Interactions; Ocean/Earth/atmosphere/hydrosphere/cryosphere interactions; Oceanic; Oceanography: Biological and Chemical; Oceanography: General; Oceanography: Physical; Oceans; Outdoor air quality; Paleoceanography; Permeability; Physical Modeling; Policy Sciences; Population density; Public health; Radio Oceanography; Radio Science; Regional Climate Change; Regional Modeling; Risk; risk assessment; Rural areas; Sea Level Change; Sea Level: Variations and Mean; Seismology; Sociodemographics; Socioeconomic factors; Solid Earth; Surface Waves and Tides; Theoretical Modeling; Tsunamis and Storm Surges; unconventional oil and gas; Volcanic Effects; Volcanic Hazards and Risks; Volcano Monitoring; Volcano Seismology; Volcano/Climate Interactions; Volcanology; Water Cycles; Water pollution; Water resources; Water/Energy Interactions
• ISSN: 2471-1403; 2471-1403
• DOI: 10.1029/2022GH000758

Unconventional oil and gas (UOG) development, made possible by horizontal drilling and high‐volume hydraulic fracturing, has been fraught with controversy since the industry's rapid expansion in the early 2000's. Concerns about environmental contamination and public health risks persist in many rural communities that depend on groundwater resources for drinking and other daily needs. Spatial disparities in UOG risks can pose distributive environmental injustice if such risks are disproportionately borne by marginalized communities. In this paper, we analyzed groundwater vulnerability to contamination from UOG as a physically based measure of risk in conjunction with census tract level sociodemographic characteristics describing social vulnerability in the northern Appalachian Basin. We found significant associations between elevated groundwater vulnerability and lower population density, consistent with UOG development occurring in less densely populated rural areas. We also found associations between elevated groundwater vulnerability and lower income, higher proportions of elderly populations, and higher proportion of mobile homes, suggesting a disproportionate risk burden on these socially vulnerable groups. We did not find a statistically significant association between elevated groundwater vulnerability and populations of racial/ethnic minorities in our study region. Household surveys provided empirical support for a relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and capacity to assess and mitigate exposures to potentially contaminated water. Further research is needed to probe if the observed disparities translate to differences in chemical exposure and adverse health outcomes. Plain Language Summary Hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and horizontal drilling have paved the way for renewed expansion of fossil fuel extraction across the country in the last two decades. Communities have voiced concerns over the industry's potential risks to the environment and public health, especially in regions that heavily rely on groundwater. We developed a new approach to assess groundwater vulnerability to contamination and examined its overlap with measures of social vulnerability. We found significant overlaps between elevated groundwater vulnerability and several measures of higher social vulnerability, suggesting higher risks of drinking water contamination among certain disadvantaged populations. The implications of the co‐occurrence of these vulnerabil