In 1930, my greatgrandparents purchased a beautiful farm in Bradford County, PA, in a little hamlet called French Azilum. In the summer, we spent time there, resting, breathing in the fresh air, enjoying the wild flowers, the bright stars and planets on a clear moonlit night, and swimming in the Susquehanna River. If gas drilling is allowed to continue, Bradford County and all of Pennsylvania will be forever changed, ruined beyond repair.
Stephanie's story of how gas drilling has jeopardized her family's health and feelings of safety is one of the most poignant and articulate accounts I have seen so far. She reports that her friends and neighbors, even church friends, are turning against her because they see her as a threat to the money they hope to get from future royalties. The social implications of gas drilling have yet to be seriously addressed, but they are there, and they are devastating.
Compressor station in Dimock, PA. Photo by Mary Sweeny
On October 20, 2009, residents of Mt. Pleasant Township, PA, reported an incident involving natural gas near the Nancy Stewart Compressor Station about 1:15 p.m. Raw natural gas was escaping from a pipeline with such force that it caused nearby homes to shake! Martin O'Lear, a local resident said,
It sounded like a rocket taking off. My eyes started to burn, and then I started to cough which lasted through the afternoon and night. I've lived here for 34 years and never had my eyes start to burn when I stepped outside.
The Department of Environmental Protection stated that the incident was "normal operating procedure." The DEP is currently performing air tests in the area. Results may be available next week.
We [in Louisiana and Texas] frequently have compressor stations that either had an explosion or an over-pressurization.
On the same day this incident in PA was reported, Dr. Subra was interviewed on WHRW Binghamton's radio show "The Point." She spoke about her work testing the air in DISH, Texas, and about the report she gave to the New York State Senate regarding clean water.
Read the whole article by reporter Nastassja Noell here.
Read this description of what the people of Texas have experienced.
Marcellus Shale is next.
In the last few years in North Texas we have seen the BOOM of the BARNETT SHALE GAS FIELDS. We have all seen the TV ads by Tommy Lee Jones and Chesapeake Oil & T. Boone Pickens, telling us how great the benefits of Natural Gas are for the Texas economy.
What they haven’t told you about is the devastation the Barnett Shale has done and is doing to the Texas environment!!
If you don’t have a gas well yet, then take a drive in Wise, Tarrant, Johnson or Hill Counties in the rural areas--not Ft. Worth, they have regulated the drilling somewhat, but in the country. You might have seen the drilling rigs up for 6 to 8 weeks, but look at the completed wells! You will recognize them by what looks like storage tanks in the fields surrounded by a fence. Listen to the NOISE the compressors make. Notice the PONDS of Drilling Sludge. Those big tanker trucks you see, that are speeding and destroying your streets and roads, Notice they have big HWP permit numbers! HWP, “HAZARDOUS WASTE PERMITS”. The TV ads tell us we are SAFE, NOT TO WORRY!
Why do these trucks have these PERMITS?
Notice the PIPELINES being laid. Notice where fences have been cut, trees torn down, and the pipe above ground, (that can be tampered with by anyone who chooses to do so) and ask a property owner if they were threatened with eminent domain? Ask them how their peace and quiet has been disturbed and if they would sign a lease now with what they have learned? Ask the towns people of Dish, Texas, what they think about the pipelines!
Ask the people of Grandview what happened to their water wells and their animals.
They tell us not to worry about what is called “NORM”(Normal Occurring Radioactive Material) being pumped out of these wells, that it won’t hurt us. Again notice the trucks hauling this waste with the HWP permits!
Go see a “LANDFARM or MUDFARM”, this is where they dump all the Toxic Sludge from the pits at the drilling sites. These farms require commercial permits; however, they can take 100 acres and divide it into 30 three-acre cells and get what is called a “MINOR PERMIT.” They say they don’t have to notify the adjacent landowners to issue a MINOR PERMIT! My home is 50 feet from a 100 acre landfarm across the road!
Ask a SURFACE OWNER who doesn’t have the mineral rights, what happened to their property and what were their rights?
Check on what has happened to Property Values around these sites. Would you want to live next to one of them?
As a property owner and mineral owner, I have found out that the “TEXAS RAILROAD COMMISSION” REGULATES the PROPERTY OWNERS and NOT THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY!
4/26/09 Dick Ross Itasca, Texas
Read the whole article here at BluedazeDrilling Reform for Texas www.txsharon.blogspot.com
