CADIZ, Ohio - Rich Moore, a formerly out-of-work Detroit pipefitter, now lives in a trailer in a cold, muddy Harrison County campground in order to work in the fracking boom in Ohio. Moore is one of thousands of transient workers who live in campers, motels and apartments in shale country. But out-of-state workers weren't among the economic benefits touted by politicians and industry leaders in a region desperate for jobs.

CADIZ, Ohio � Rich Moore had never heard of fracking or Utica shale until his union posted a job opening in September.

But they are the reasons the formerly out-of-work Detroit pipefitter now lives in a trailer in a cold, muddy Harrison County campground.

Moore is one of thousands of transient workers who live in campers, motels and apartments in shale country.

They�re here to drill and frack the Utica shale, as well as build the pipelines and processing plants that connect natural gas to businesses and houses. The demand for skilled labor has brought people from as far away as Texas and Florida to Harrison, Carroll and other eastern Ohio counties.

The influx has helped boost the local economies in small towns that dot the region, and it is straining the housing supply.

But out-of-state workers weren�t among the economic benefits touted by politicians and industry leaders who predicted that shale drilling would create a much-needed infusion of jobs and cash in Appalachian Ohio.

More than three years after the first Utica drilling permit was approved, transient workers are among the most-tangible signs of the shale �boom.�

While economic activity has boosted sales-tax revenue significantly, which helps the economy, there has been little measurable change in the underlying labor market.

When he�s not connecting the industrial pipes at the heart of the MarkWest natural-gas processing plant, Moore lives down the road in Cadiz�s Sally Buffalo Park. Nearly every spot in this 84-campsite section of the campground is occupied by a trailer ranging in condition from shiny, white and new to dingy and decades old.

The camp, run by the village of Cadiz, offers basic electricity and water service for trailers and little else. There are no Internet, cable TV or sewage hookups here. Toilet water has to be ferried to a dump station.

Some in the area call such temporary trailer communities �man camps.�

�Living in a camp is not too bad,� Moore said, outside to adjust a tarp that helps keep the cold out of his RV. �There�s money to be made here, and you don�t want to leave money on the table.�

According to the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council, a journeyman pipefitter can make $32 an hour after union dues and fees. Moore and other camp dwellers say they often work 10-hour shifts, six days a week.

If he works even six months, Moore could make about $50,000.

A debate over job creation and the economic benefits of eastern Ohio�s Utica shale boom has continued unresolved since drilling and fracking began in late 2010.

Oil and gas industry officials predicted in September 2011 that the growing effort to tap oil and gas in the Utica shale would lead to more than 200,000 new jobs in four years.

So far, that has not panned out, even in the counties with the most drilling activity.

For example, Carroll County�s job market is still below pre-recession levels based on two key measures. In November, the county had 12,800 employed residents and an unemployment rate of 7.6 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In November 2007, the county had 13,100 employed residents and an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent.

Carroll County is the center of shale drilling in eastern Ohio. Its employment statistics are similar to those in other counties where shale drilling is underway. The figures are based on where people live, so short-term workers from outside are not included.

The number of transient workers in Ohio is difficult to calculate.

Mark Partridge, an Ohio State University economist, and Shawn Bennett, spokesman for the industry-advocacy group Energy In Depth, point to Pennsylvania studies that estimate that 30 percent of workers in that state�s shale industry are from other states.

Partridge and Bennett said it�s reasonable to assume that the same ratio of out-of-state workers is working in Ohio�s Utica shale drilling and processing industry.

�We�re talking about the same industry,� Partridge said.

�I think it�s a very similar comparison,� Bennett said. �You are talking about an area where the work force hasn�t been developed.�

Amy Rutledge, director of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, estimates there are at least 1,000 transient workers in her county. �That�s probably a low number,� she said.

The recent employment figures are a huge improvement from the depths of the economic downturn, when the county�s jobless rate peaked at 16 percent, but the data do not indicate a red-hot labor market.

Tom Stewart, vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, said employment figures don�t necessarily reflect the economic changes.

�Too much of the focus, particularly within the media, has been on the drilling rig,� Stewart said. �Finding people to man these rigs that are specifically constructed to accept the tools necessary to do horizontal drilling is a very difficult process.

�We need to look downstream from the drilling rig and realize all the auxiliary economic activity that swirls around this thing.�

Stewart said shale drilling has increased demand for road-construction workers, truck drivers and welders.

�I think the real indicator is sales-tax receipts that have grown in the eastern counties where this activity is taking place,� he said.

Sales-tax receipts in Carroll County totaled $2.6 million in 2012, the most-recent year figures are available. That�s a 46 percent increase over the taxes collected in 2007.

Harrison County collected nearly $2 million in sales tax in 2012, a 47 percent increase.

Those figures only include the counties� portion of sales tax. Both counties outpaced the state, which saw an 11 percent increase, based on data from the Ohio Department of Taxation.

Of the dozen counties that had the largest percentage increase in sales-tax receipts, Carroll and Harrison are the only two that did not raise rates during that time.

Business is so brisk at Carrollton�s Ace Hardware that co-owner Kim Mills uses two shipping containers behind her store to hold merchandise.

The store supplies the odds and ends that oil and gas companies and workers need � power tools, yards of hose and flexible tubing, hard hats, clear plastic face shields and lots of work boots.

The pace of business never seems to slow. It�s 2 p.m., and a steady stream of customers, many in work overalls, flows in and out the door.

�Five-gallon buckets are really big,� Mills said. �We�re selling a lot of heated garden hoses. The workers need them so the water to their trailers won�t freeze.�

She said sales have increased substantially over the past two years, leading to an expansion.

Economists say they are concerned that this kind of income could end up being akin to empty calories � a brief jolt to the local economy with little change in a region�s long-term fortunes.

�The deep-down question people need to ask is, �With this activity that�s going on in the community, to what extent is it benefiting the community?� � said Tim Kelsey, an agricultural economist at Penn State University who has studied the effects of shale development on his state.

�If it is non-local companies bringing in non-local supplies and non-local workers, then there isn�t much of an effect on the area.�

The development of Utica shale in Ohio � tracked in numbers of wells drilled � appears similar to Pennsylvania, which experienced a drilling boom in its Marcellus shale.

From 2005 through 2008, oil and gas companies drilled 495 shale wells in Pennsylvania. More than 800 wells were drilled in 2009, and nearly 1,600 wells were completed in 2010, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Some experts say Pennsylvania�s boom might have peaked in 2011, when 1,963 wells were drilled. The next year, there were 1,347 wells drilled.

Ohio�s experience with shale energy is similar. Ohio Department of Natural Resources records show that 667 wells were drilled through 2013.

�Based on (Pennsylvania�s) experience, we�re talking five years to reach a peak, and then you start falling off,� said OSU�s Partridge.

So far, Utica shale has more oil and natural-gas liquids than does Marcellus, which is largely made up of natural gas. That�s an advantage for Ohio, experts say.

Natural-gas prices have remained low for several years, partly because of an abundant supply from shale formations, while oil and natural-gas liquids are more valuable.

The liquids � ethane, propane and butane � are used as fuel or in making plastics.

Housing remains a hot commodity near the shale formations in eastern Ohio. Available apartments in Carrollton are scarce, and rental rates have more than doubled there, said Rutledge, of the chamber of commerce.

�The (oil and gas) business is definitely a transient business. That�s the nature of it,� she said. �They get paid more than the average people around here, so that�s why landlords have raised their rates.�

Bob McMahon said the $5,000 he spent to buy his trailer was a better deal than paying $450 a week for a hotel room.

The Detroit pipefitter is a friend and neighbor of Rich Moore at Sally Buffalo Park. Like Moore, he is helping construct the maze of industrial pipes and valves that make up the nearby Cadiz processing plant.

�When this is done, I�ll take it home or sell it,� McMahon said of the trailer.

This past summer, most of an 84-campsite section of Sally Buffalo Park was occupied by oil and gas and construction-trade workers, according to Scott Porter, park manager for the village of Cadiz. That same section of the park was nearly full in late November, and Porter had just finished helping a new transient worker park his RV in one of the last open spots.

Two new hotels are planned in Carrollton, Rutledge said.

Not all transient workers are from out of state. Jerry Puchajda, a general laborer from Lisbon, in northeastern Ohio, is staying at Sally Buffalo Park in a small, beige 1968 Econoline Coachman that�s pocked with minor dents and scrapes.

�It sleeps six comfortably,� he said sarcastically.

He is a member of Laborers Local 809 in Steubenville and assists scaffold builders and pipefitters as well as cleans debris from working areas at the Cadiz gas-processing plant.

According to the construction trades council, that kind of work nets about $27 an hour.

�I came down here to make money,� Puchajda said. �That�s what everyone here is trying to do."

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