I'm also here in western Pennsylvania, and I'm currently on the fence on this issue.
And, PW, don't think we don't hear about this ALL THE TIME, from BOTH sides, out here. There are articles in our local paper here nearly every week about what's up with the fracking industry here. And we've been hearing this stuff literally for years. Well over a year ago my parents and I went to a sort of town hall meeting in our county, which they held in a large school auditorium that filled up quickly. Both sides were represented -- everything from attorneys representing landowners and drillers to actual drilling company reps to folks who have had experience with wells in their area. It was very informative.
My conclusion right now is that this is LIKELY not going to do any permanent damage, but that it wouldn't kill us to do a little bit of research and even waiting to see what happens in areas that are already using wells this way. I don't understand the big hurry, except as it involves money. I tend to think waiting and watching to see how the safety issues play out isn't going to affect anyone except financially (and that means the drilling companies, mostly, and some landowners who wouldn't get residuals as fast as they've been told they would).
The dire cries of panic seem extremely overblown to me (and it doesn't help their cause that many of their claims have been seen to be hoaxes), but if there is a chance of ruining groundwater, I say we do more research first. Once an area's groundwater is ruined, everybody might as well move away completely. Not sure I want to start moving away from western Pennsylvania just yet.
And, unlike Yoda (sorry, Yods), we here a county away from him are REALLY in the thick of it. My brother-in-law is being courted by the drilling companies for rights to his piece of land about five minutes away from our house. He has an attorney looking over paperwork. We have wells around here MUCH closer than Yoda does (which is why we had the town hall meeting and why our paper writes about this all the time). So, it's quite likely I'll have wells fairly nearby me at some point, and probably do already if I care to drive around and look for them.
BUT, I also know I've heard a lot of information about the safety side of things and I know that the panic cries are almost all alarmist. The stories of cement cracks and burning water and other things remind me of the stories we are STILL subjected to up here about nuclear power. (My husband works at the Shippingport nuclear plant, the oldest operating nuke plant in the country, I believe, operating in some capacity for fifty years.) We still get panicky anti-nuke stories in the paper any time someone coughs the wrong way at the plant. I joke that, if someone takes a leak at the nuke plant, the local paper hears the word "leak" and turns it into a big front-page story.
Any time there IS a nuke story in the paper, I ask my husband what *really* happened to trigger the story... and it's ridiculous to hear how much local reporters inflate the situation and use all the right words to induce fear. (Kinda like Yoda mentioned using "seismic activity" as a trigger phrase.)
So, I read these panic stories about fracking and I wonder... and I wait.
Also, yes, the wells are ugly. Yes, the areas immediately surrounding them are ugly. A LOT of industrial sites are UGLY. If you don't want ugly industrial sites anywhere, then you apparently don't want electricity or running water or heat coming directly into your home or any number of other conveniences you take for granted.
I could say a ton more, but I won't. My experience is that the side for fracking seems to engage more in facts and denotations, and the side against fracking is resorting to fear-mongering, illogical arguments (and I mean that in the classic sense of "logic"), and emotional button-pushing. Even if they're ultimately right, I hate feeling as if I am being manipulated into a position.
For now, we watch what happens with my brother-in-law's land, and we wait. And we read. And we ask questions.
And, PW, don't think we don't hear about this ALL THE TIME, from BOTH sides, out here. There are articles in our local paper here nearly every week about what's up with the fracking industry here. And we've been hearing this stuff literally for years. Well over a year ago my parents and I went to a sort of town hall meeting in our county, which they held in a large school auditorium that filled up quickly. Both sides were represented -- everything from attorneys representing landowners and drillers to actual drilling company reps to folks who have had experience with wells in their area. It was very informative.
My conclusion right now is that this is LIKELY not going to do any permanent damage, but that it wouldn't kill us to do a little bit of research and even waiting to see what happens in areas that are already using wells this way. I don't understand the big hurry, except as it involves money. I tend to think waiting and watching to see how the safety issues play out isn't going to affect anyone except financially (and that means the drilling companies, mostly, and some landowners who wouldn't get residuals as fast as they've been told they would).
The dire cries of panic seem extremely overblown to me (and it doesn't help their cause that many of their claims have been seen to be hoaxes), but if there is a chance of ruining groundwater, I say we do more research first. Once an area's groundwater is ruined, everybody might as well move away completely. Not sure I want to start moving away from western Pennsylvania just yet.
And, unlike Yoda (sorry, Yods), we here a county away from him are REALLY in the thick of it. My brother-in-law is being courted by the drilling companies for rights to his piece of land about five minutes away from our house. He has an attorney looking over paperwork. We have wells around here MUCH closer than Yoda does (which is why we had the town hall meeting and why our paper writes about this all the time). So, it's quite likely I'll have wells fairly nearby me at some point, and probably do already if I care to drive around and look for them.
BUT, I also know I've heard a lot of information about the safety side of things and I know that the panic cries are almost all alarmist. The stories of cement cracks and burning water and other things remind me of the stories we are STILL subjected to up here about nuclear power. (My husband works at the Shippingport nuclear plant, the oldest operating nuke plant in the country, I believe, operating in some capacity for fifty years.) We still get panicky anti-nuke stories in the paper any time someone coughs the wrong way at the plant. I joke that, if someone takes a leak at the nuke plant, the local paper hears the word "leak" and turns it into a big front-page story.
Any time there IS a nuke story in the paper, I ask my husband what *really* happened to trigger the story... and it's ridiculous to hear how much local reporters inflate the situation and use all the right words to induce fear. (Kinda like Yoda mentioned using "seismic activity" as a trigger phrase.)
So, I read these panic stories about fracking and I wonder... and I wait.
Also, yes, the wells are ugly. Yes, the areas immediately surrounding them are ugly. A LOT of industrial sites are UGLY. If you don't want ugly industrial sites anywhere, then you apparently don't want electricity or running water or heat coming directly into your home or any number of other conveniences you take for granted.
I could say a ton more, but I won't. My experience is that the side for fracking seems to engage more in facts and denotations, and the side against fracking is resorting to fear-mongering, illogical arguments (and I mean that in the classic sense of "logic"), and emotional button-pushing. Even if they're ultimately right, I hate feeling as if I am being manipulated into a position.
For now, we watch what happens with my brother-in-law's land, and we wait. And we read. And we ask questions.