Alright, after having a discussion with a coworker today about this, it really had me thinking, and I wanted to hear what those whom I presume care for the outdoors a great deal. If this is technically in the wrong section, feel free to move it. Those of you from PA here are probably well aware of the recent gas exploration boom here with the Marcellus shale. I won't bore you with the details, but the short of it is, it's proving to be one of the biggest sources of natural gas in the U.S. and seeing as our close proximity to the highly populated northeast, it is most likely going to be aggressively developed. Now, for the most part, this has little DIRECT financial benefit to our residents, but the indirect impact could reach pretty far in terms of increased local business revenue, more jobs, more revenue for our state organizations, etc. Of course there are the certain negative aspects, and the list of possible concerns can be very alarming to those who enjoy the outdoors. The waster water used in fracing the shale contains environmentally harmful byproducts, and many of the drill sites are still using temporary open put storage systems. There have been a few local water contamination issues (other minimal in the grand scheme of things) as well as the concern of the cutting of access roads, well pads (although the ability to drill multiple wells from one pad is minimizing this), pipeline ROW's, etc through much of our state forest ground. What impact this "development" of our public lands will not fully be realized until the play is really well underway. For me, I'm personally involved in this play. Our hunting club had a well drilled about a year and a half ago with the possibility of more to come. I stand to make some (not sure how much) money of the play through future royalties, but I seem to be one of the only members truly concerned about this. I'm young, and extra money would be nice, but I'm much more concerned about having quality land to enjoy for years to come and hopefully for my children and their children. So, we have two sides to this issue. The positive aspect of an alternative energy source that has the ability to at least alleviate SOME dependence on foreign oil, help the local and state economy, possibly bring some jobs into the area, but at the sacrifice of what? The hardcore proponents of this drilling would probably classify me as a NIMBY (not in my backyard), but I suppose I'm being cautiously optimistic. So, where would your priorities lie in this situation?
Do a check on how the mining industry has treated the environment out west. Then you will get an idea of what you have to look forward too with regards to waste water, roads, local water contamination and the impact of development.
I have hunted in Texas and Wyoming on properties that had active wells and there seemed to be very little negative impact. In fact, in both instances there was game all around the wells. The contaminated waste water would be my biggest concern.
The world class mule deer popeye spent the majority of his life along with his herd of about 30-70 doe on a methane field in southwestern wyoming. I wouldn't be to worried.
Matt, the benefits are obvious and the benefactors are many. I do have reservations as well. My family has 185 acres real near where the pipeline should come through and or another well, so the dollar signs are in my head too, but I want to know the real costs. At a local watering hole I overheard a worker (from TX) bragging about how great this shale is up here and that they've never seen anything like it, BUT she (rough looking lady, whom I would want on my side in the event of a brawl) really hopes that they don't F*&% it up like they did in TX by taking shortcuts in cleaning the water. I guess that's the real key, if they just throw it in a mud pit and don't really take care with the cleaning, then we may have some trouble. I just hope our local governments don't screw up and turn a blind eye in the name of some extra money. I know several of them have made out real well selling excess clean water to the drilling outfits.
I don't particularly care for the gas well explosion on several levels. Some are meaningless on a grand scale,(but I don't like them personally) others I feel could impact things on down the line more than what people are thinking. I would prefer a much more cautious & thought out approach.
You've got that right. This whole gas drilling (drawing water) thing is going to play hell on many of our wild trout streams down the road. Boy, I sure hope I'm wrong! I don't think it's going to effect the deer hunting very much though. Maybe some temp localized disruption (spooked deer), but that should be about it though. JMHO
There are a lot of gas wells where I hunt in Somerset, PA and my friend who owns the land we hunt on had 2 put in on his property. There is also a trout stream down across the road. We have seen no impact to the wildlife and the wells have been in place for around 4 years now. This includes the trout streams. Now, I'm not saying there isn't a reason to be worried, because it's all about who does the drilling. In our case though, things turned out pretty well.
From what I've read it's going to be worse than hell on the trout and it's going to be a bad effect on the deer as well. I'm praying it won't be...
To you that have read about the effects on the trout, what are they? I would have thought that I would have heard something about it from my father in law as he is the president of the local creek association and is responsible for growing and stocking some 14,000 trout every spring. I'm curious.
I'm not sure what the local governments regulate regarding the drilling but DEP hired alot of people to cover all of these areas as inspectors, compliance specialist, etc. I know numerous outfits have been nailed so far, so they know they are being watched. Hopefully they follow all of the regs set forth because of this.
