Gas Wells Drilled Near Schools, Hospitals

Today's Towanda Daily Review reports on a study by PennEnvironment which found that Marcellus Shale gas wells have been permitted or drilled within two miles of 320 day care centers, 67 schools, and 9 hospitals in Pennsylvania.  State law restricts drilling within 200 feet of an occupied building, but local and state officials have introduced bills and ordinances to expand that buffer.

The study found that one day care is 400 feet from a permitted well site and one school is 9 feet away.  The closest hospital to a gas well is ½ mile.  Proximity to gas processing plants and compressor stations was not included in the study.

The recent gas well accident in Bradford County, during which thousands of gallons of flowback spilled out into farm lands, streams, and Towanda Creek,  points to the danger of anything living, plant, animal, or human,  being near a well site.  Basic brain work would tell us that putting wells next to schools and other facilities where people are is wrong.

Read the article from the Towanda Daily Review here.