Marcellus Shale: Susquehanna County Residents Accept "Growing Pains"

Flaring operations in Susquehanna County
Photo used with permission

Read how some residents of Susquehanna County are able to rationalize about the great benefits of the gas drilling industry while seemingly ignoring the downside of this misguided search for energy. What are they looking at?  Restaurants are thriving. The stone quarry business is going great guns. Heavy equipment rentals are through the roof. School districts are getting money which keeps shortfalls for education at a minimum.  Roads are being improved.  Welding companies and the trucking industry are in full swing.  Rental units are full. A restaurant patron in the Stables Restaurant said of the gas industry:

Plain and simple, it's a plus.  It's going to improve a lot of people's lives.

What are we missing here?  Citizens For Clean Water, a Montrose-based group, syas that drilling in the area continues to wreak havoc on the water supply and atmosphere. Its director, Vera Scroggins, stated:

We have eco-system and habitat destruction from all of the infrastructure, with pipelines and noise from the compressor stations and well sites.

Habitat loss, noise pollution, water contamination,  pipelines, light pollution, wells within 300 feet of homes and within 100 feet of waterways, truck traffic, flaring- what about these issues?  Are they being addressed along with those "good effects"? 

I am constantly amazed at how people will act against their own best interests.  The proper way to approach the gas industry is:  research, science, and then action.  We are doing it in reverse.  Public health and the environment should be taken into account.

Click on this link to read the Rocket-Courier article.  LINK