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The Bad and The Ugly: Gas Drilling Continues in PA
On Thursday June 3, Natural gas and polluted wastewater blasted out of a well in Northwestern Pennsylvania for 16 hours before being contained Friday. It is estimated that at least a million gallons of gas and chemical laden wastewater spewed 75 feet into the air before cascading into the ground and toward the tributary of the Susquehanna river. To make things worse, when Michael Morrill of the Daily Kos attempted to take photos and video to document the extent of the pollution, Morrill was threatened and chased off the property by gas company thugs. This was the most serious drilling related accident that’s happened in Pennsylvania in years, and it has confirmed the fears that many people had of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”.
Although the site of this accident was over a mile away from the nearest house, those who live in close proximity to fracking sites have already begun to see its devastating effects. Kevin Grandia of the Huffington Post recently interviewed a woman who can actually light her tap water on fire! (see photo above) She told Grandia that a natural gas company had built a drilling station on her ranch and after a year or so her dogs stopped drinking the tap water she put in their dishes.
When she turned on her faucet there was a hissing noise like leaking gas before the water would come out. Neighboring ranchers told her that their kids came out of the shower with chemical burns all over their bodies. Another neighbor’s water well shed burned to the ground.
On a hunch she took some of the tap water out to her shed and put a lighter to it. As she suspected, it lit on fire.
Yet because it is the cheapest and easiest way to access natural gas, hydraulic fracturing continues to be used. In 2005, Vice President Cheney helped create an exemption of fracking fluids from the Clean Water Act, at the same time exempting these companies from having to meet the regulations protecting the nation’s freshwater supply.
So far in the 34 states where gas fracking has taken place, residents have reported water and air contamination from drilling chemicals and fires and spoiled wells from methane migration. State governments in shale states such as Pennsylvania have welcomed fracking as a boon to struggling economies, but is this short-lived boom worth leaving a bust of scarred landscape, degraded environments, and human and animal illness. It is essential that we stop fracking in Pennsylvania before we are totally fracked.
Written by intern on 06/15/2010 in Activism | Blog | Causes | Editorial | News | Politics | Theory/Criticism
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