History in the Making: Marcellus Shale Natural Gas Drilling
The Endless Mountains Region has embarked on a new and fascinating journey with the introduction of natural gas drilling in the area. Natural gas companies have made residency here as they work diligently to extract the natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation–a black shale that is thousands of feet underground. The Marcellus Shale lies beneath much of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio,West Virginia, and adjacent states. As you travel through the Endless Mountains, you may see a well rig towering into the sky,
or a large leveled area of ground with equipment all around.These are all part of the drilling landing pad and gas extraction process.We invite you to learn about and discover this part of history that is unfolding in the Endless Mountains.
To learn more, contact the visitors bureau at 1-800-769-8999, or visit http://www.pamarcellus.com/. (This website is clearly pro-drilling in every way.)
I am going to call the number above and ask where would be a good place to see a gas well.
Here is the website where you, too, can download this visitors guide:
http://www.endlessmountains.org/
You could call it "The TOXIC tour"
ReplyDeleteYes, that sounds great for the whole family!!!
ReplyDeleteOr they could rename the region 'The Endless Drillpads' . . . (just take a look at the area around Dimock; it's well on its way to such a description). Maybe the tourists would enjoy breaking an axle driving the country roads destroyed by the water trucks.
ReplyDeleteIt boggles the mind that there would be a thought in the minds of the brochure promoters that folks would come to a place called 'The Endless Mountains' to see gas drilling. Talk about a whitewash job . . . It seems a truism that things must get worse before they get better. Some more well blow-ups and water poisonings later - which are bound to happen (along with demonstrations at well pad sites and anti-drilling signs on peoples lawns) might not look so attractive to tourists or tourism promoters.
Latest news, Bradford County:
ReplyDeletePennsylvania DEP fines Talisman for drilling fluid spill
August 4, 2010
Source: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
The Department of Environmental Protection has fined Talisman Energy USA Inc., of Horseheads, N.Y., $15,506 for a spill of used natural gas drilling fluids last November at its Klein gas well pad in Armenia Township, Bradford County that polluted a small, unnamed waterway.
The spill involved hydraulic fracturing flowback fluid, which is the substance that returns to the surface after a company injects the pressurized fluid underground to fracture, or “frack,” a geologic formation and extract natural gas.
“DEP’s investigation in late November 2009 determined that Talisman spilled between 4,200 to 6,300 gallons of fracking flowback fluids when a pump failed and sand collected in a valve,” said DEP North-Central Oil and Gas Program Manager Jennifer Means.
The fluids flowed off the well pad and toward a wetland, and a small amount ultimately discharged to an unnamed tributary to Webier Creek, which drains into the upper reaches of the Tioga River, a cold water fishery.
Talisman successfully completed DEP’s Act 2 process for spill cleanup activities.
The fine will be deposited into the fund that supports DEP’s oil and gas permitting and enforcement programs.