Gas Drilling in Northeast Raises Health and Environmental Concerns Among Residents

[babylonsister]

An Unearthed Resource: Gas Drilling in Northeast Raises Health and Environmental Concerns Among Residents

by Byard Duncan


The road leading to Ron Carter’s trailer is made of red clay that melts away a little every time it rains. Truck traffic has created an obstacle course of tall divots that punch at the bottom of cars, rattling spines and scraping mufflers. Some lawns along the way host bathtubs full of garbage or rusty drums belching out dark smoke. Others have drill pads and cranes that stab 200 feet into the air. This is Dimock Township, the speck on Pennsylvania’s map that just became ground zero for America’s energy future.

Carter, like his trailer, is white and jagged with little hints of warmth tucked into the corners. Words slip out of his mouth in terse grunts, moving under his mustache and past the copper cross dangling from his neck. He talks about 2006: the year he leased his land to Cabot Oil and Gas for $25 per acre. At the time, nobody thought natural gas drilling would ever take place in Dimock. Leasing was just a quick way to earn some badly needed cash. Next month’s mortgage. A new bike for the kids.

So when the drilling started last September and the enormous trucks bumped down Carter’s road and the night sky lit up like an industrial-strength Christmas tree, Carter and his wife Jean Carter were a bit surprised. They were even more surprised when they found out their water had been contaminated with fecal coliform — a bacterium often found in ground soil — sometime between July and November. The smell of it made Jean Carter sick to her stomach every time she tried to do dishes. It was undrinkable. Unusable.

The Carters took a sample to Cabot, which refused to pay for a water purification system. There are no materials used in natural gas drilling activities that use fecal coliform, according to Cabot. But the Carters believed that newly excavated access roads had flooded, spilling manure from a nearby pasture into their well. Carter, a 70-year-old ex-factory worker on disability, got a credit card and charged $7,000 for the system. He’s still paying it off, waiting for a royalty check for the gas taken on his land, from the same company he believes did the initial polluting.

Ken Komorowski, a Cabot spokesman, said he doubts the fecal coliform could have come from the drilling.

“Cabot does employ state-of-the-art erosion controls and meets all DEP requirements in regards to storm water flows,” he said. “That would include runoff from any construction activity.”

But the Carters’ water had never been contaminated before. Their neighbors across the field had never had such violent stomach pains, either. It all happened just a few months after the drilling started.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/04/23-5

[imdjh]

1. I suppose nothing is simple

It seems that the simplest solution would be for the energy companies to buy these folks out, especially with real estate values being what they are.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the nation you have farmers and other property owners fighting to preserve their right to use their property for the investment that it is.

[RoseMead]

2. Honestly, do people ever learn from history?

A hundred years ago, people in Appalachia leased or sold their mineral rights to outside interests, with exactly the same thoughts in mind: this land will never be mined, we need the money, etc. The results were disastrous.

This is not to excuse Cabot Oil and Gas; I have little doubt that this company's drilling has fucked up Dimock Township, and those poor people will be paying the price for the deals they made for a long, long time.

But honestly, the historical record is there - selling or leasing the rights to what's under your land is a huge gamble. Some people may come out ahead from such deals, but many, many folks get screwed. This has always been the case, and I suspect it always will be.

My sympathies to the people of Dimock Township. They probably have a long, hard fight ahead of them. These companies do not care about the people, or the land, or the community. All they care about is their money. West Virginians know, we've lived it. (And Pennsylvanians have probably lived it too, so they should know as well...but apparently in this case they didn't.)

[ConcernedCanuk]

3. NO

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