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The University of Cincinnati (UC) has been in the news recently due to two studies on the impacts of oil and gas on air and water quality in Ohio. One is a yet to be published study of groundwater that found no impacts from fracking. The other was recently retracted due to bad data that initially claimed fracking could increase cancer rates through air pollution. The corrected data showed its previous conclusions to be widely inaccurate, as levels were in fact well below the Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for health concerns.  Both of these studies received significant funding from taxpayers.

Now, on the heels of those two studies, one of the researchers of the retracted report, Dr. Erin Haynes, is embarking on another taxpayer-funded study, this time focusing on an injection well in Guernsey County. The new study will look at “volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, particle matter and radioactivity levels” and “surface and drinking water samples will also be collected to be analyzed by the University of Cincinnati.”

Here are a few things about the forthcoming study that raise some red flags:

The players – who is conducting UC’s newest oil & gas study?

The lead researcher is Dr. Erin Haynes, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati, who was also a researcher on UC’s View Full Article