Lack of action from state and federal government means thatcommunity organisations are picking up the slack of monitoringthe effects of fracking in the Northeast

The rise of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been controversial, with many campaigners expressing concern about the implications for the local environment, including streams and rivers. In new research, Abby Kinchy writes that monitoring of the effects of fracking on local watersheds in the Marcellus Shale region of New York and Pennsylvania by state, local, and multistate government is often patchy, and that many local volunteer and non-profit organisations are taking up the slack of such monitoring. She finds that these organisations were the only ones monitoring 22 percent of watersheds in the Marcellus Shale region, showing that governments could and should be doing much more to monitor the effects of fracking in this region.