COLUMBUS, Ohio — Fracking has garnered lots of attention along the Ohio and Pennsylvania borders in the past year. Now, news of this process is making its way toward the western portions of Ohio.

“Fracking,” or hydraulic fracturing, is a technology used to extract natural gas that lies within a shale rock formation thousands of feet beneath the earth’s surface. Thirteen special meetings are scheduled across Ohio in the next two months to address the technology and to answer many questions pertaining to drilling lease and ownership rights.

Dale Arnold, director of energy services for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, is spearheading many of these gatherings. Just last month he met with citizens of Sugarcreek to discuss leasing issues and gave landowners advice on how to deal with oil and gas companies looking to drill on their land.

“If you’re not at the table talking about those things now, yes, you will be part of the menu very, very quickly,” Arnold said.

He stressed that folks need to know what type of drilling will be used on leased land. If a lease contains keywords including “shale,” “deep wells” or “horizontal drilling,” the landowner should ask for a more detailed lease.

“The five-page, easy-to-read, 1990s-style lease is not going to begin to cover the needs that you’re going to have for your farm or rural residence with regard to that type of technology,” he said. “It’s time to get an attorney, and it’s time to get one now.”

Just last week 150 landowners and officials from the Tuscarawas County area met to discuss drilling operations. Exploration for oil and gas deposits in Utica and Marcellus shale formations thousands of feet below the surface has just begun in the Tuscarawas Valley, with drilling companies scrambling to obtain rights to the mineral riches.

The drilling boom is expected to last for decades, and eventually bring 10,000 jobs to Tuscarawas County alone. One of the biggest players in the industry, Oklahoma-based Chesapeake Energy, plans to eventually drill 12,000 new wells in eastern Ohio, with 20 rigs operational before the year is out. Its first well in the Tuscarawas Valley was drilled in the fall.

“If landowners decide to allow drilling on their land, they should start recording baselines and fixing problems with their water wells and septic tanks,” Arnold said. “That way, if any contamination happens, the landowner has documentation that it occurred after drilling began.”

Arnold said any lease, even one originally signed 100 years ago, could still be legally binding. That means another drilling company could buy out that lease without consulting the current landowner or paying them.

Environmental advocates have claimed that leaked fracking liquid has poisoned water supplies and harmed residents’ health in areas near natural gas wells, but Arnold said the process can be done safely. He also said many fracking chemicals are used in small quantities and found in common household items. The water, he said, can be reused and stored in stainless steel containers instead of holding ponds.

Some people in these gatherings are concerned about horizontal drilling used by natural gas companies. Horizontal drilling allows one surface well to tap gas trapped over hundreds of acres. Once the conventional vertical drill hits the shale formation, it turns horizontally in several directions, much like the spokes of a wheel.

The well is then cased with steel and cement. Explosives are places at intervals along the horizontal section of the well to perforate the steel casing. Under very high pressure, a combination of water, sand and chemicals is sent deep into the earth to create cracks and fissures in the shale rock.

Those fissures are held open by the sand, allowing the natural gas to flow through those cracks, into the well bore and up to the surface. Some are concerned about drilling under one’s property without first gaining permission.

“Gas doesn’t follow boundary lines,” said Mike Hogan, Jefferson County extension educator and an expert in fracturing issues. “Companies are not supposed to drill if they do not own the rights, which is why these companies are trying to tie up ‘blocks’ of properties. Ohio has a regulation that some landowners do not like, and it’s called a mandatory rule, that allows these companies to petition to use the land should the landowner be the one who is holding out.”

For the past 18 months those living in eastern Ohio met with oil company representatives and local officials about fracking. More meetings are scheduled for other counties as fracking moves west, even into Butler County in the southwestern portion of the state.

“Fracking hasn’t reaching Indiana, but it will be in northwestern Ohio before it reaches southwest Ohio,” Hogan said. “People become accepting of this. You get a one-time bonus check for $500,000 and you tend to embrace something.

“But overall, people are wary, especially farmers. They want to make sure they get the right contract and lease that protects the resources for future generations.”

The meetings are as follows:

•Wyandot County Fairgrounds, Feb. 16, 7-9 p.m., 10171 state Route 53 North, Upper Sandusky; 419-447-3091

•Carrollton High School, Feb. 22, 7-9 p.m., 252 Third St., N.E., Carrollton; 740-339-7211

•Cuyahoga Public Library, Feb. 23, 7-9 p.m., 9089 Brecksville Rd., Brecksville; 440-877-0706

•Trumbull County Career Center, Feb. 27, 7-9 p.m., 528 Educational Highway, Warren; 440-877-0706

•Mill Creek MetroParks Farm, March 5, 7-9 p.m., 7574 Columbiana-Canfield Rd., Canfield; 330-533-5553

•Jefferson County Joint Vocational School, March 6, 7-9 p.m., 1509 County Highway 22A, Bloomingdale; 330-266-6603

•First Christian Church, March 13, 7-9 p.m., 104 Third St., NW, New Philadelphia; 330-339-7211

•Wood County Fairgrounds, March 14, 7-9 p.m., 13800 West Poe Rd., Bowling Green; 419-849-2128

•Romer’s Catering & Entertainment, March 16, 11:30 a.m.- 1:30 p.m., 118 E. Main St., Greenville; 937-335-1471

•Miami Trace Middle School, March 20, 7-9 p.m., 3800 state Route 41, Bloomingburg; 937-382-4407

•Carrollton High School, March 22, 7-9 p.m., 252 Third St., N.E., Carrollton; 740-339-7211

•Hopewell Fire Hall, March 27, 7-9 p.m., Hopewell; 740-945-0386

•Butler County Farm Bureau, March 29, 7-9 p.m., 1802 Princeton Rd., Hamilton; 513-844-8371