It is so easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless in this struggle to get the real story about drilling for natural gas into the eyes and ears of the residents in the areas where this is happening. For this reason I decided to take a larger step in getting closer to the truth.
This past weekend I took a trip to Washington County, PA to visit some of the folks in Hickory. This is the site of some of the very first hydro-fracked wells that existed in PA.After all, some of these wells went in back in 2005 so it seems that by this point they should all be millionaires living the good life, the economy should be well on the upturn with plenty of jobs…..at least this is what the gas industry keep telling us will be.
I have to say that isn’t quite how it’s gone down for the residents there.
I met with Ron Gulla who lost his 141 acre farm due to water pollution and dirty drilling practices by Range Resources. Terry Greenwood and his wife are also farmers who have lost at least 7 cows due to contaminated pond and spring water. They are wondering when they might get sick too. Terry’s royalties are just enough to cover the cost of him meeting with his lawyer for 1 hour per month! He stuck in a perpetual lease signed in 1921.
Hickory Pa stinks…literally! Would you like to know what the smell of toluene, benzene, butane, ethane, propane and other NGL’s (natural gas liquids) smell like? Do you know what it’s like to go out your backdoor and walk 30 feet to the top of the ridge and get hit in the face with a blast of this stuff coming from a compressor station less than a mile from your house? Stephanie Hallowich sure does. After spending about 20 minutes in her yard I felt sick to my stomach and had a headache. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have to live there!
Wayne and Angel smith live near Clearville, PA and they’ve lost livestock as well as beloved pets due to contaminated drinking water. Both Angel and her husband Wayne are sick themselves. They’ve spent over $10,000.00 on a system to treat their water which they also use to water livestock. They hope this system is working on their water problems but what’s going to clean the air that is full of contaminates from a nearby gas storage facility? Both Spectra Energy and the DEP have been called out many times to test and view these issues and each time they have turned a blind eye to the problems in this valley.
For more information on any of these people and their stories please click on their names.
In the future you will be able to find all their faces at http://pafaces.wordpress.com/
We will post a new face and new story each day. If you have a situation that you want others to hear about please contact me through a comment on this blog or directly from the site below.
Filed under: drilling in pa | Tagged: angel smith, bedford pa, dead livestock and natural gas, drinking water, faces of frackland, farms destroyed by natural gas, fracking, fracking chemicals, fracking toxins, frackland, groundwater, hickory pa, Marcellus shale drilling, natural gas, natural gas and farming, natural gas and polluted water, natural gas compression stations, natural gas health risks, natural gas in PA, natural gas pollution, natural gas violations in PA, natural gas water pollution, natural gas water quality issues, natural gas wells, pa faces, PA water pollution, public health, ron gulla, stephanie hallowich, washington county pa, water contamination, water pollution, water preservation, water quality, wayne smith | 3 Comments »
How Should We Do the Mountain? 