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Relatives of Mrs G informed us the other day that they signed a 5 year lease with a company to drill for natural gas on their land in Wyoming County for the tidy sum of $125,000 and the promise of royalties down the line. They didn't want to hear my objections to that decision even when I pointed out that they live off well water that may become polluted. They just saw dollar signs. To drill just one well requires 1 to 5 million gallons of fresh water that is treated with all sorts of chemicals and most of it remains in the ground that that may leech into the aquifer. The water that rises to the surface is held in man made ponds lined with plastic and containment barriers that have failed and spilled into local streams and rivers killing fish and polluting drinking water.
Now various companies are proposing to build treatment plants so the water from the extraction can be discharged into the Susquehanna River and other waterways. The first problem with that is that companies doing the drilling won't disclose what chemicals they are using claiming it's "propriety information."
Near Tunkhannock North Branch Processing LLC hopes to build a plant near Skyhaven Airport to clean the “frac” water and discharge it into the river. The locals aren't thrilled with the idea, “If they’re going to discharge it into the Susquehanna River, which people fish in, which people play in, it should be clean enough to drink,” said George Turner, a local geologist with experience handling contaminated water. “If they can’t clean it up that much, then reuse it as frac water.”
Another plant is in the works near Williamsport to be built by TerrAqua Resource Management. Kayak Dude spoke out at the DEP permit hearing. Don Williams of Harleysville said allowing the gas industry to gain a foothold in the state would set back environmental improvement efforts decades. Williams compared "the Marcellus Shale frenzy" to making a pact with the devil.
"We are once again striking a Faustian bargain at the expense of our natural resources, degrading the quality of our land and our waters in exchange for the false promises of jobs and the fleeting economic prosperity for a limited few," he said.
"I am fully opposed to the further degradation of the Susquehanna River ... and I am respectfully requesting this application be denied," Williams said.
Williams added that until the gas industry provides full disclosure of all chemicals used in the hydrofracturing process, action on all gas drilling wastewater treatment plant applications be suspended.
"We are once again striking a Faustian bargain at the expense of our natural resources, degrading the quality of our land and our waters in exchange for the false promises of jobs and the fleeting economic prosperity for a limited few," he said.
"I am fully opposed to the further degradation of the Susquehanna River ... and I am respectfully requesting this application be denied," Williams said.
Williams added that until the gas industry provides full disclosure of all chemicals used in the hydrofracturing process, action on all gas drilling wastewater treatment plant applications be suspended.
Don's complete testimony is here .
un-naturalgas.org is a New York state site about Marcellus Shale that has a great primer on all the issues involved, take a few minutes and read it.
This post about living next door to gas drilling activity documents the impact on your quality of life even if you don't allow drilling on your land but your neighbor does.
