WOUB To Air Live Call-In Show On Fracking

In recent months, debates have raged about how fracking could impact the region.

Hydraulic fracturing (known as fracking) is a water-intensive industrial process that drillers use to collect the natural gas held in shale formations and it’s the topic of “Newswatch In-Depth: Fracking Frenzy” airing Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 8 p.m.

Shale gas has become an increasingly important energy resource in the U.S. Fracking fluid contains water, salt, sand and chemicals. This fluid is injected at high pressure underground into geologic formations. The salty water, sand and chemical mixture forces natural gas up through the well bore to the surface for collection through pipelines.

Fracking in the region could mean millions of dollars to landowners and thousands of jobs to an area hit hard by the recent recession, but environmentalists wonder how it might affect the ground water and question whether the economic impact is worth the possible cost to the land.

Four experts on both sides of the issue make up a panel to discuss the issue and we'll talk about what the controversial procedure means to people in the Appalachian region.

The program will be shown on WOUB-TV, aired on WOUB-FM and streamed online at woub.org.

Viewers can submit questions to the panel by calling 800-456-2044 beginning at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 28 or tweet them to @woubnews with the hashtag #indepth. You can also e-mail them to news@woub.org or submit them by going to the contact form at woub.org.

Find a special coverage page on fracking here.

http://woub.org/2012/02/14/woub-tv-air-live-call-show-fracking