Hydrofracking Exposed: Photojournalists Visit Dimock, PA

Carter Road, Dimock, PA

Two college students from RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology), photojournalists Ellie and Lauren visited Dimock, PA, and Silver Lake, PA, on February 10-11, 2012, to learn for themselves about the effects of hydrofracking on this area.  They have done a superb job of capturing the essence of what Gasland is all about.  Their concern for this beautiful area of Pennsylvania and their dedication to opposing hydrofracking everywhere is inspiring.

Day One, Part One
Day One, Part Two: Carter Road
Day Two: Silver Lake

What Does the Gas Industry Do To Our Roads: Amazing Video from PA

Silver Creek Rd., Franklin Twp., Susquehanna County; The worst road conditions before or since gas drilling in our area. It's a paved road running east and west and for about four miles and the road's edge is breaking down, chunks of road lifting up, as if an earthquake has happened.

Vera, who took this video, has demonstrated the severity of the road damage in PA. She also shows how dangerous it is to be a local resident and try to drive on this old country road. You take your life in your hands. The huge trucks keep going by her in both directions constantly. This is a great video that gives us a sense of what life is like in Gasland. Not too good if you ask me. It looks very stressful at best. And people have been killed on roads similar to this one.

Towanda Area (PA) Ground Zero For Drilling Boom and its Opponents

Main Street, Towanda, PA
Non-stop traffic compliments of the natural gas industry
Photo: Carol Manuel


 

I have heard from the locals that it often takes upwards of 25 minutes to go about two miles through downtown Towanda these days.  Welcome to Boomtown and the Occupation of the Gas Drilling Industry where gas reigns supreme.  The people who deal with leases have virtually taken over the court house.  Try to find a place to sit down in the hallway these days.  And every eatery is thriving.  You will find roughnecks in most of them. Well, they do deserve a good meal.  But they don't change clothes or boots.  What are they bringing in with them?  Some say drilling chemicals. 

Traffic concerns are many.  Elderly citizens are intimidated by the traffic, both when walking and trying to drive in their cars.  School bus drivers are hampered by heavy traffic and road closings. Emergency vehicles have encountered problems in answering calls for help due to road conditions.

Unemployment has gone down according to Commissioner Mark Smith.  However, Michael Lovegreen, District Manager for the Bradford County Conservation District, recently told me that he has had to let people go in his office because he cannot compete with the pay offered by gas drilling-related jobs.  When the boom is over, the unemployment may very well rise to even greater proportions.  Not only that, but what kind of jobs are currently available?  Are they jobs with decent pay?  I talked with a 31-year-old man in June who is living with his parents because his pay working for a company that prepares well pads (I won't mention the company just in case someone could identify him and cause a problem) doesn't pay enough and the rents have gone sky-high as a result of the influx of gas workers.

As for the gas drilling jobs providing a great  future for our young people, where is the moral outrage in encouraging them to seek jobs in oil and gas?  These are very dangerous jobs in regard to health and mortality.  Constant exposure to toxic chemicals is only one issue.  Wouldn't it be better for all of us if our young people could be trained in green technology jobs which would lead to energy sustainability? 

Read the article in the Rocket-Courier (the fourth in a series of five articles) by Rick Hiduk.

Stop the Megaloads Now: Alberta Tar Sands Need US Help

Monstrous machines over wild and scenic Idaho and Montana highways will destroy the wilderness and roads. Exxon is destroying our natural resources while taking in $40 billion a year in profits. They destroy our public lands which we own and pay taxes on.

Block Exxon's Tar Sands Operations!

Natural Gas Drilling Causes Truck Traffic Nightmares

Frack truck impacts on New York towns and villages:  What will our future look like?

Thanks to Sustainable Otsego for this excellent presentation by Chip Northrup and Jeff Reynolds.
Distribution courtesy of Teresa Winchester.

Gas Drilling Bad For Business in Bradford County, PA

A water tanker spews dust as it drives along North Street recently.  Jackie Vanderpool says some of the customers at her hair styling business are reluctant to venture out in the dust after an appointment.
Photo: The Rocket-Courier, Wyalusing, PA

Road construction and heavy truck traffic on North Street in Terry Township have not been kind to Jackie Vanderpool and her business.  Road work has hurt her business immensely she says.  Other small business owners have experienced similar problems- lost business.

Vanderpool says that the entrance to her salon used to be level with the road, but now there is a steep incline to traverse in order to get to her walkway.  Some of her elderly clients have a lot of trouble now, and they are afraid of falling.  She says,

All I want is for it to be fixed somehow.  I worry about my customers falling down and hurting themselves.

Customers have started calling the salon to see if road conditions are good or bad. Roads being worked on are sometimes closed off. Vanderpool has asked the construction company if her customers can be allowed to go through to get to her salon. Some of her clients just want their hair cut instead of the usual wash, set, and style. They feel like it is futile to get their hair styled only to go outside and be enveloped in dust.

It's sometimes so thick you can't even see across the street.

While it is nice that the construction workers have offered to come and help customers get back to their cars safely, that solution seems undesirable. Who wants to have a sweaty, road crew member in full battle array take a hold of your arm?

Vanderpool told the reporter, Cain Chamberlin, that it takes her two or three weeks to make the same amount of money that she used to make in only one week.

LINK

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

In memory of Karen Korell

SPLASHDOWN

1944-2010

Water Well Driller Questions Cheaspeake Energy's Theory in PA

Water extraction facility in Ulster, PA.   These trucks are sucking up the water from the Susquehanna River.

Photo credit:  Carol Manuel

Letter to the Editor, Aug. 29, 2010
Published: August 29, 2010 (The Towanda Daily Review)

Loss of one resource for another?

EDITOR: Being a licensed Pennsylvania water well driller for the past 40 years and being born and raised in the Towanda area, I feel I must respond to the stories I keep reading about the gas drilling companies shifting the blame of water well problems to poor well construction and local water well drilling.

One such story was in this week's Sunday Review (Aug. 22, 2010). And before I begin I want it known that any subsequent mention of the Chesapeake company shows no hostility towards them or their representatives. With mutual respect and dual acknowledgement of experience, I do believe that natural gas extraction and water well drilling can harmoniously coincide in Northeast Pennsylvania.

First of all, if a water well is not constructed properly, there are problems from day one and not 10, 20 even 50 years later. Referring to Sunday's article, Brian Grove of Chesapeake stated he does not believe, the facts, implicate its drilling operations is causing the water issues at hand. We have not spoken with any of the Paradise Road residents, but, the fact is, we have recently received many calls from local homeowners regarding disturbances in their water wells that began after nearby gas drilling activity had started. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize the time line coincidence and figure out gas drilling activity probably has caused these water well issues.

Again referring to the Sunday article, Mr. Grove wrote, affected water wells are drilled into shallow aquifers. Most of our calls pertain to rock wells, but our answer to his comment is, this is Pennsylvania, not Texas! In many local areas, residents depend on the shallow aquifers because the deeper water is salty, or sulfury, and not compatible to human consumption. What a shame to disturb their only potable water resource.

And Mr. Grove's insinuation that poor water well construction could be causing current water well issues is a direct disrespect to me, my father before me, and other local reputable water well drillers. Speaking for myself and my father's memory, we have drilled thousands of water wells during decades of business in Northeast Pennsylvania. Our continued good reputation is testimony that we do successfully construct quality water wells. I invite Mr. Grove to call me to discuss well construction but not to come into my hometown and discredit my work. Mr. Grove stated that Chesapeake has offered to drill replacement water wells of "superior construction standards." A recent telephone conversation with Chesapeake representative Larry Wooten makes me question what he means by "superior construction standards?"

Mr. Wooten called in regards to me drilling a replacement well on my neighbor's property. He quizzed me about my practices and prices. When I told him I use a steel drive shoe on the bottom of my casing to seal contaminates from entering the well, he told me they never use them and thought this contaminant seal was an unnecessary added cost. Again, this is Pennsylvania, not Texas. I believe embedding a steel drive shoe into rock formations is necessary to superiorly construct a Pennsylvania water well.

To end, we believe Northeast Pennsylvania is both blessed and cursed by the Marcellus Shale mineral deposits which lie underneath our homes. The excitement of gas lease funding and large drilling rigs coming to our area has been replaced by damaged roads; delayed travel and traffic snarls; streams sucked dry by convoys of trucks, driven by persons foreign to our area, who may skillfully drive Texas flatlands but have difficulty maneuvering our hilly serpentine roadways; residential sweet water invaded by methane that is blowing off well caps; local families displaced by gas workers; and other changes affecting our work and lifestyles.

 Unlike cautious New York state, we think Pennsylvania jumped the gun and has allowed natural gas drilling companies into our area too soon, in too large of numbers, and with too few regulations in place. The saying, you don't know the worth of the water until the well is dry, sounds like a reality to us. Our drinking water is being affected and millions of gallons of water are being extracted from our streams, rivers and municipal wells with insufficient recharge. Well, Sen. Casey, we agree it is high time to protect our water, our people and our future.

Thomas and Loraine Cummings Water Well Drilling
Towanda

The letter can be viewed as it appeared in the Towanda Daily Review here.

Natural Gas Industry: Is Chesapeake Energy Just a Good Neighbor?

Photo credit: Frank Finan

Chesapeake Energy has contracted out road work in Bradford County, PA. Is this just a generous kindness on their part?  No.  They decided that it would be cheaper better to upgrade the roads for their heavy trucks now rather than demolish the roads and then have to continuously fix them.  Most of these back roads, actually none of them, were ever meant for heavy trucks the likes of these.  The bridges are having to be strengthened, too.  You will see signs saying, "Ten ton limit" everywhere.  Even empty, most of these vehicles weigh three times that.

Read more here.

Natural Gas Drilling: Public Safety Officer Is Concerned in Bradford County (PA)

Gary Wilcox, Bradford County Public Safety Director (Photo credit: Eric Hrin, The Daily Review)

At a luncheon on Wednesday, May 19, at Towanda High School, Gary Wilcox, the county's public safety director,  expressed his considerable concern about deteriorating road conditions which can and do lead to serious problems- accidents, impassable roads, truck drivers unfamiliar with the PA terrain, among other unsafe situations facing first responders.  He is particularly concerned about school buses and the safety of school children.  A major stress on public safety is the gas drilling industry, he said.

One of the main concerns I have is school buses. These water trucks, the heavy equipment, they want to get from A to B as quick as they can. They're not used to driving on these roads. They're not used to the snow, the ice, the corners, the ups and downs. If you have a water truck and a school bus coming, the roads aren't that wide to begin with...

Wilcox said he can't do a lot about the roads because the county doesn't own the roads. However, he said he can call the township supervisors who can take appropriate action.

Read the whole article here.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Watch This Video Filmed In Dimock, PA

The noise is unbelievable.  The roads are caked with mud and potholed.  Trucks everywhere.  Water tanks by the dozens.  All within 300 feet of people's homes.  It's just wrong.
Kudos to Vera Scroggins who took this video!

Gas Drilling in NE Pennsylvania: Ulster Votes To Seek a Gas Lease

Ulster, PA

Monday night, April 5th, the Ulster Township Supervisors voted to put out for bid  a lease which would allow a natural gas company to set up an operation on township property.  The land to be used for this purpose is underneath the township building, Totem Park, and the ball field.  Chesapeake Energy has shown an interest in obtaining the lease. The amount of money to be paid to the township for this lease:  $45,000.

Putting gas wells on public property near a park and a ball field is a dangerous proposition.  Ulster citizens must question this plan at public meetings.  Their lives will be permanently changed by this.

At the same meeting, money was allocated to buy 7,000 tons of gravel to perform maintenance on local roads which are badly in need of attention.  If the articles appearing in the Towanda Daily Review lately are any indication, the roads in Ulster will only get worse when the gas drilling gets into full swing.

Read the article in the Daily Review.

Ulster is in Bradford County near Sayre.

Bradford County, PA: This Is a Paved Road?????

Roads are going to pot, quite literally speaking in Bradford County, PA. According to an article in the Rocket Courier newspaper, this is a paved road.  This picture (photo by Wes Skillings) shows a section of North Street just off Route 187 in Terry Township, Bradford County, PA.  The road you see here was supposedly filled in and smoothed out a week or so before this picture was taken.  As you can see, the road repairs didn't seem to make a big difference.

In Bradford County, as in most counties I would imagine, there are township roads, county roads, and state roads, and all of these roads are maintained by these different public entities.  It must be difficult to deal with this problem of deteriorating road conditions when you must first find out who maintains the road in question: town, county, or state.  Tina Pickett, who represents the county in Washington, says the townships should hold the gas companies accountable.  However, if a ruined road is a state road, the county has no control over it. 

No one is suggesting that the gas companies aren't trying to repair the roads, but the scale of the problem is so great and getting worse, that the gas companies can't keep up.  There is also a problem getting enough gravel and other materials and a problem finding enough workers.  It seems everyone underestimated  the severity of this crisis.  In addition, as the Burlington Township Supervisor Ed Grant said recently,  "Nobody is really in charge and taking a comprehensive view.  Nobody has control over any one thing."

Bradford County Commissioner Doug McLinko has noted that the summer months will probably produce a major dust problem on the roadways.  Then there are the complaints about the trucks going too fast, hogging the roads and making life more miserable for local drivers.  Some residents of Terry Township reportedly have been frustrated due to lack of response to their complaints of speeding and wreckless trucks.

Since gas drilling operations are only in the beginning stages,  these problems do not bode well.  The situation will only get much worse as time goes on.
 

A Local Bradford County Citizen Speaks Out On the Downsides of Gas Drilling

Below is a letter to the Editor of The Towanda Daily Review (3/22/2010):

Another hurdle relative to the roads will be for the townships to deal with the question of how the gas pipeline crossings will be made in their townships. Townships without water, sewer, or natural gas service to their residents do not have standards already in place relative to how a road crossing will be done. Many townships will be dealing with this question, maybe COG or Bradford County Planning could provide some leadership so that the townships who would like to can all go work together to set the standards, rather than each township setting its own standards, or worse yet, having no standards at all. There is also a massive 16" fresh river water pipeline being planned to cross several counties and many townships. This water line would connect a river source like the Susquehanna to the water impoundments that are being built. The system would require booster pumps to pump the water. Private ROW agreements will be sought for this line, right now the people don't know what the going rate for such a facility should be. The water line would be buried 4 feet underground to frostproof it so building it is a major undertaking. This line would have to cross many roads to get across the many townships it will serve. The line is expected to be technically temporary but will serve for 10 years or more. I'd like to see Bradford County Planning involved in the siting of this line, rather than just finding out where it is going and putting in on the maps that they are keeping up. Engineering support for this project is contacting the townships to get copies of their ordinances which might relate to this project. No one has said how wide the clear cut for this water line will be, but between the gas gathering lines and these 16" river water lines, forest fragmentation will clearly become an issue of the future. Runoff from the deforested areas will change, and again roads will be impacted.

But worse than the road impacts is the looming potential of drinking water issues. These impacts when they occur on a house by house basis in the rural environment are shattering, since there is no infrastructure for the townships to use to supply those impacted. And what will we do if an entire town's water source became undrinkable?

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Drilling Companies Ignore Laws

Picture by Pete Hardenstine

Four truck drivers were fined and jailed on Wednesday, February 3rd, in Towanda PA. They were charged with driving with invalid permits. The state police alos found "numerous safety, permit and load securement violations." The trucks were impounded. The drivers, unable to post bond, were sent to the Bradford County Correctional Facility. They work for T. K. Stanley, Inc., of Waynesboro, Mississippi.

Some observations: None of the truck drivers were from the local area. Weren't at least the truck driving jobs supposed to go to locals? The company trucks were being operated without the proper permits, and they were probably way over the limit for tonnage. I have personally seen these huge trucks driving way over the speed limit on these narrow back roads. They can scare the living daylights out of us ordinary people. I've been nearly driven off into the ditch a couple of times. And lastly, everyone probably realizes that these violations go on every single day. And we can see the roads going to pot, literally. We also know, do we not, that there aren't enough inspectors or state police to monitor all the roads of Bradford County. So the gas drillers can just go on as usual, knowing that there will be a few fines here and there, but for the most part, they don't have to really worry about it. Why should they?

Read this article from pressconnects.com.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

No Permits At All

Overwhelming evidence now exists that the Halliburton gas drilling process causes contaminated drinking water, carcinogens in the farmland and food chain, torn-up roads, risk of explosions, toxic air pollution, plummeting real estate values, and screeching noise pollution.

What does the gas industry have to give back to the land and the people who live on the land? Practically nothing. The gas industry has a way to avoid consequences. Lots of money and lots of lawyers and lots of public officials and community leaders who can't wait for the drilling to commence. Why do people make decisions which are not in their best interests? It is the hope of striking it rich. The only people who do that for sure are the gas drilling corporations.

INSIST ON TOUGH LOCAL PERMITTING AND ROAD USE!

Wrongful Death: Gas Drillers Pose Serious Danger On Our Roads

I just got back from a trip to Bradford County, PA. I'm glad I am still in one piece and my car is okay. The gas drilling truck traffic is horrendous. And, on the country roads where I was, you just have to pray when a truck approaches. There is nowhere to go except to pull over as far as possible and hope you don't end up in the ditch. These trucks go very fast. And they are tearing up little country roads. The potholes are huge. The pavement is broken up into little pieces in many places.

Last September (2008), a woman from Cleburne, TX, was not so lucky. She was killed when two pieces of oil field equipment fell off a truck and crushed the driver's side of her Ford Explorer. The truck driver reportedly had numerous driving infractions on his record. He had several tickets, a suspended license, and was not qualified to be driving the tractor-trailer.

When gas drilling comes to your neighborhood, watch out. Prepare to be scared. It's a terrible feeling.

Read the article from the Cleburne Times-Review (07/08/2009) here.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!
WE WANT SAFE ROADS-AT LEAST!

More Weight Restrictions on Bradford County (PA) Roads

Trucks line up during well drilling.

The residents of Bradford County have been noticing more signs regarding weight limits on state roads. This trend will continue. PennDOT reports that at least ten more roads will be posted with permanent, year-round, 10-ton weight restrictions. Weight limits will apply to all trucks with the exception of local delivery trucks and school buses. A major problem are the gas drilling operations now in progress in the county. An average truck used in hauling water or brine to and from gas well pads weighs about 80,000 pounds or 40 tons. The road damage caused by these large trucks is almost inevitable. Hundreds of trips back and forth to wells are required for each installation. Necessary repairs in Bradford County will be huge. Traffic and engineering studies have indicated the need for more restriction of road use.

Read more here.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!
PROTECT YOUR LOCAL ROADS!