British Geological Survey (BGS), the Universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester and York and partners from Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), are conducting an independent environmental baseline monitoring programme in the Vale of Pickering, North Yorkshire. This is the area where North Yorkshire County Council has granted planning permission to Third Energy to hydraulically fracture one of their wells.

The monitoring allows the characterisation of the environmental baseline before any hydraulic fracturing and gas exploration or production takes place in the event that planning permission is granted. The investigations are independent of any monitoring carried out by the industry or the regulators, and information collected from the programme will be made freely available to the public.

The monitoring in and around the Vale of Pickering and Lancashire includes:

water quality (groundwater and surface water)
seismicity
ground motion
air quality
radon
soil gas