LM+Annotation+12

Food and Water Watch: A Pennsylvania Case Study. //The Social Costs of Fracking//. 2002. //Google Scholar//. Web. 5 Oct. 2013.


 * 1. What three quotes capture the critical import of the text?**

• “Food & Water Watch found that traffic accidents, civic disturbances and public health problems in rural Pennsylvania counties have increased since the shale rush began in 2005, diminishing the quality of life for residents of once-bucolic communities”

• “Energy booms create intense pressures on local communities. The flood of out-of-state workers with few local social ties, plenty of money to spend and little to do can overwhelm the limited capacity to meet the growing needs and new challenges”

• “Pennsylvania Food & Water Watch’s findings provide concrete evidence of the widespread media reporting that fracking contributes to increased traffic accidents, crime and sexually transmitted infections. The results also are consistent with the academic literature demonstrating the negative community impacts from the oil and coal boomtowns that sprang up in the wake of the 1970s energy crisis.”


 * 2. What is the main argument of the text?**

Fracking has significant social costs, in addition to the highly publicized/controversial environmental and health impacts. The report finds that communities subjected to unconventional gas drilling saw an increase in traffic accidents, crime, and sexually transmitted infections, and that these factors had negative impacts on quality of life in these areas.


 * 3. Describe at least three ways that the main argument is supported**

a. The article highlights truck crashes as a significant source of social impacts to fracked communities. Because of the increase in heavy truck traffic (despite a drop in the national average), the number of truck crashes has increased, as has general wear and tear on the roads. This has significant impacts on the surrounding communities, as it affects the response times of emergency vehicles, and creates more traffic overall.

b. A second social effect highlighted in the article is the rise in social disorder crimes associated with fracking. The article attributes this to the influx of transient workers, which has been shown to cause increased levels of substance eabuse and alcohol related crimes.

c. The third specific example cited in the text is the rise in sexually transmited infections, giving evidence to the idea that energy booms can cause increased public health issues. In some cases, this rise in illness can lead an overwhelming of hospitals.

4. Describe the main literatures that the text draws on and contributes to

The text contributes to the literature on the public health impacts of fracking, and also to the literature on the sociology/anthropology of fracking. It draws on work that has already been published within these realms, but also contributes new findings.


 * 5. Explain how the argument and evidence in the text supports, challenges, or otherwise relates to the argument or narrative that you imagine developing.**

The text provides evidence that fracking has a negative impact on communities, not just in terms of health or environmental issues, but also in terms of social/community issues. The arrival of large numbers of male industry workers, and the effects that this has on women in the community, is something that I could explore further in my work.


 * 6. List at least three details or examples from the text that you can use to support the argument or narrative that you are developing.**

a. “In oil boomtowns in North Dakota, doctors are treating more chlamydia cases, sexual and domestic assault rates have increased, and many local women have reported feeling unsafe.”

b. Some Pennsylvania counties have seen sharp increases in the number of 911 calls, often pertaining to heavy truck accidents (for example, McKean Country saw a 46 percent increase from 2009 to 2010).

c. The report found that counties with at least fifteen fracking wells per square mile had a larger increase in disorderly conduct arrests than unfracked rural communities after the first wells were dug in 2005.