Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2016OH507B

Baseline measurements of methane emissions from Piedmont Lake - current and future fracking area

Institute: Ohio
Year Established: 2016 Start Date: 2016-03-01 End Date: 2017-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $11,288 Total Non-Federal Funds: $79,238

Principal Investigators: Gil Bohrer

Project Summary: Methane is the second most important green-house gas (GHG). Methane is emitted from natural wetlands ad lakes, and also from natural gas extraction and production operations. The large uncertainty surrounds both the quantity and mechanisms producing natural methane emissions from lakes and wetlands, and fugitive methane emissions during hydrofracking, compound in areas where fracking is conducted near and/or under lakes and wetlands. In such cases, there is a strong need for baseline observations of the natural emissions which will be used to distinguish those from additional emissions, if present, related to fracking. The direct result of this project will be the development of a dataset of observations of baseline emissions from Piedmont Lake, OH, and an empirical model for the emission rates from the lake. Though the modelling approach is general and could be applied anywhere, we will use the depth of data at our field site in the 4H camp at the shore of Piedmont Lake, near future potential fracking sites. Some of the area around the lake was cleared for fracking activity, and production may start in the next few years.