No Fracking Way?

[WanderingFool]

Aimed towards Sportsmen and Fishers.

http://headlines.verizon.com/headlin...rticle=3520659

It is an article about outdoor enthusiasts in the Marcellus Shale area who are volunteering and monitoring the Gas companies and getting their own info and results.

It is worth 5 minutes to read!

Cheers
Mike

[39flathead]

As someone that works in the logging industry, it's nice to see that there is a new bogeyman in the woods of Pennsylvania.

As for the cloudy water in the streams, I don't think that's from the fracking process itself, I think it is from unscrupulous trucking companies dumping the frack water into creeks.
More than once I've seen gas well water trucks parked alongside a creek somewhere on a back road. I doubt all those guys were just looking for a place to take a nap.

As for the landowners not getting what they think a reclaimed chunk of land should be, that's their own fault. They wanted that cash from the drilling companies and didn't want to attempt to specify in the contract what they wanted done after the rig was pulled because they didn't want to risk losing the deal(cash). Well, that's on them to get out their wallets then, too bad, so sad.

Like I said, I have been dealing with the bogeyman stories for years, logging destroys this and that, it chases away game, ruins hunting ,ect... All bull. Maybe fracking does/will create problems with the land/water, I don't know, but maybe instead of wasting money on worthless crap in government, they should hire more regulators to insure that the companies are doing whats right and legal.

[mauser]

I grew up in Elk county and hunted in the areas of Elk, Jefferson, McKean and surrounding counties. There are gas wells there that were drilled and fracked long before the days of the strict regulations that are in place now. The fracking and drilling processes have evolved since then and so have the guidelines that must be followed.
The wildlife around those wells didn't seem to mind at all. When they cut an area to drill and took out the trees to make access roads it gave the wildlife fresh food and cover. When they were done the new growth gave the wildlife fresh food and cover. There are a few pipes sticking out of the ground but that's all that remains and the animals don't seem to be bothered by it at all, the land was, and still is, great habitat for wildlife. The PAGC did more to devastate the deer herds than the gas industry ever did. Anyone who is familiar with what that area was like in the 60s, 70s and into the 80s can probably remember deer herds of a hundred or more. We would watch and count as they passed through, it was amazing. If you were familiar with the area around Owl's Nest you saw whet we did, huge deer herds and lots of gas pipes sticking out of the ground. Ducks, geese, beavers, rabbits and all sorts of wildlife just going about their life not caring at all about what the humans were taking out of the ground beneath them. The gas wells weren't a problem. Sure there was some disruption during the construction process but when it was done and the gas was flowing and the only activity was periodic maintenance the landscape was fine, the water flowed clear, the wildlife flourished and the hunting was great. The herds diminished in the 80s when there was no new gas drilling. What caused that? They flourished after the first round of old fashioned drilling way back when. The PAGC changed the rules to thin the herd, and they sure did accomplish that goal. It had absolutely nothing to do with mining our natural resources.
Housing developments and new highways have done far more damage than drilling for gas has ever done, and that damage is permanent, drilling sites must be returned to original condition or as close as possible.
The regulations that the drilling companies have to deal with today are much stricter than they were way back then. If things turned out so well then they'll turn out well now. The energy we need, the jobs we need, and the environmental restoration that must and will be done is vital to our survival and will have little long term impact.
Yes, there are going to be a lot more wells drilled now than there were then, the drillers will also have to comply with stricter regulations. If they got it right then they'll have to get it really right this time around.
If we want to preserve the great outdoors we need to do more than stop the drilling for gas, we need to stop converting farmland into housing developments, we need to cut population growth to limit the demand for energy and new housing. (China tried something similar).
We need the fuel and the jobs. In the long run it's a lot less destructive than other things that we accept without question. It can be termed as a temporary inconvenience for permanent improvement.
If there are violations we need to find those who are responsible and hang them out to dry. Keep them all in line and we'll be much better off for it.

[Dredly]

The only way that this would post a threat to the wildlife is if its not disposed of properly, otherwise I see no issues and there are already laws and regs about it...


is it being enforced correctly? no idea... but the deer herd is going because of loss of habitat, food, mismanagement, and auto accidents. primarily the last 2