Marcellus Shale : What Lies Beneath The Lies

More recently, I've been engaged in the ongoing Marcellus Shale debate the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. There are many reason I am against drilling. None of the least are that I have real estate interests in an area that is currently being corrupted by gas companies. The drilling has increased more than 50% in the past decade!

My biggest concern however is keeping drinking water safe from the drilling process. For example, 13 families filed a lawsuit in Susquehanna County near Allentown, Pa., claiming a faulty well drilled by Southwestern Energy Co. of Houston, Texas, leaked fracking fluid into the surrounding groundwater.

There are numerous lawsuits like this:

According to Penn State University, the gas well operator is presumed to be responsible for pollution of any drinking water supply within 1,000 feet of the gas well if it occurs within six months after completion of the gas well. Of course, it's hard to prove what the well was like prior to the invasion of the gas companies.

Therefore, the operator can employ one of these defenses, less and less effectively today:

• The pollution existed prior to the drilling.

• The landowner refused to allow the operator access to conduct a pre-drilling water test.

• The water supply is not within 1,000 feet of the well.

• The pollution occurs more than six months after completion of drilling.

• The pollution occurred as the result of some cause other than the gas drilling.


This website is probably one of the best indications that we are indeed correct: natural gas drilling and fracking is bad for the region and bad for America. But most importantly to quiet the non scientist, mob mentality GOP, natural gas is not going to resolve America's ongoing energy problem. Rather, it's going the way of coal -- destroy, destroy, deplete. more...