Millionaires and more: Shale boom upside

Amy Rutledge, a Carroll County native and director of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitor's Bureau, and Keith Burgett, a veterinarian whose Burgett Angus Farm is the site of one of the first Marcellus wells in the county, were among those meeting with us to discuss the drilling boom's impact on the community. This posts deals with the pros they identified. We'll get to their cons in the next post.

One of the the most shocking statistics was cited by Rutledge, who said that a survey of local banks indicated that the boom had produced as many as 600 millionaires in a county of 30,000 people.

She also said:

• The number of hotel rooms in the county will double by the end of this year with the opening of new facilities.
• Unemployment has decreased from nearly 15 percent in 2009 before the boom to near 6 percent now. Local people who are not working now "probably don't want to work," she said.
• Drilling on the grounds of a county-owned resort and golf course has saved the facility, which has been renovated and now is consistently booked up due to gas drilling-related business.
• Rental landlords have experienced a windfall as prices that had been between $300 and $600 per month have increased dramatically. It is now difficult to find anything for less than $600 a month.
• The Chamber of Commerce has grown from 175 to 220 members.

Burgett also pointed out:

• He was pleased with his dealings with the drilling company that put in the wells on his property
• Restaurants and gas stations that were struggling to survive are now consistently busy
• The developments laid out in these points represent incredible improvement for a county where residents' average income had been about $10,000 below the statewide Ohio average.

How does a fracking boom change a community?

A good part of our trip was spent in Carroll County, Ohio, which lies in the heart of the eastern Ohio Marcellus Shale drilling boom. There we met with a number of officials, residents and community activists who have experienced the fracking boom and the related changes in this rural county of about 30,000 from differing perspectives.

One of the officials we met was Amy Rutledge, a Carroll County native and director of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitor's Bureau. While it is her job to promote the county, in her talk with us, she did acknowledge that the boom has had some negative impact. Here she is in two videos, one from energynation.org, a industry group, and a one from the Columbus Dispatch, which offers a more even-handed examination of community impact that also includes a story and slideshow.

Other reports: Slideshow explains shale drilling

In this slideshow, InsideClimate News reporter and fellow Shale Institute participant Lisa Song walks you through the process of shale gas drilling.

Other reports: Quakes and liquid waste connect communities east and west

Here's a broader perspective on the Cuyahoga River and Ohio from Colorado reporter and fellow Shale Institute participant Stephanie Ogburn.

Earthquakes? Why are you surprised?

The connection between injection wells and earthquakes has been known since the 1980s, according to Jeff Dick, professor and chair of the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences at Youngstown State University.

Put simply, an earthquake can occur if the well injects liquid into a fault line or the liquid escapes through a fracture in the surrounding rock and finds its way to a fault line.

Dick said these incidents have been well documented in academic and industry journals over the years. He believes the Youngstown and other recent injection well-related earthquakes have received wider notice for several reasons. First, the amount of injection well activity has increased dramatically in recent years and is tied to a hot topic, fracking waste. Second, he points out that social media and the internet allows word to spread much faster today than back in the 1980s when the earthquakes were a current topic among academics and industry insiders.

Youngstown earthquake - what did we learn?

So what happened in 2011 to cause the earthquake near Youngstown, Ohio, that captured national attention and raised more concerns for many about disposal of frack waste?

Video: Cuyahoga River from flames to healthy fishery

This short World Fishing Network documentary explores the recovery of the Cuyahoga River, which was once so polluted with oil and other debris that it burned several times.