© 2024 WUOT

WUOT
209 Communications Building
1345 Circle Park Drive
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-0322
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Sorting Out Concerns Over Fracking on the Cumberland Plateau

Sometime in 2013, a team of researchers with the University of Tennessee plans to drill a series of wells into shale deep beneath the Cumberland Plateau as a testing ground for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The controversial practice has been blamed with health problems and contaminated groundwater in other states. The UT test wells, planned for Morgan and Scott counties, will try to answer vital questions about the effects of fracking. Kevin Hoyt is the director of the University of Tennessee Forest Resources Ag Research and Education Center. On December 5, he told WUOT's All Things Considered host Brandon Hollingsworth the project aims to provide science-based answer to hot-button questions about fracking and the environment.