Living in a Fracking Gasland

Last night as I went to bed, I looked at our recent, and first, snowfall of this year. The snow was a beautiful glow; white against the dark patches of grass and trees.  The moon was out and full, and the sky was very cloudy and overcast.  I looked off in the distance and noticed flickering; not just a small flicker, but a large one–taking up almost all of the horizon, and looking like a building was on fire.  I realized then that about 2 miles away, a gas well was being flared.  Flaring is what occurs after a well is fracked; fracking is the drilling part, and gas flows back out to the surface.  The gas is lit, and a very large and tall flame flies up into the atmosphere.  This flame burns for days, and sounds like a jet engine and shakes the ground. The purpose of flaring is to remove impurities from the gas, but in so doing, it creates impurities in the air and causes air pollution. 

The orange glow through the clouds was ominous, foreboding, and I found it difficult to sleep.  It’s hard for me to allow this to happen; to be forced to sit back and do nothing.  But that’s what I have to do because my hands are tied.  I am but a small speck in this “big bag of tricks” and I have to learn that there are some things I cannot change.

Today I worked hard at acceptance, and tonight I wrote a parody on my plight; a song to sing, because singing takes the fear away.  So here it is: (to the tune of Walking in a Winter Wonderland).  I envision someone taking up with this and making a parody; even elaborating more than I have here.  Wouldn't that be great?  Maybe then people would take notice.  Oh the video!  

Over the hill the sky is glowing
And down the road, flames are blowing
It’s a beautiful sight---
Our 24 hour daylight
Living in a fracking gasland

Gone away is the quiet
People here will deny it
It's a beautiful way 
To get the money they pay
Living in a fracking gasland.

In the meadow they can drill a gas well
And forget about the people nearby
They can denude all the trees and forests
And ruin the soil and water supplies.

The sky was once a clear blue
You could see white in the clouds
But now the sky’s an orange hue
And the sun never seems to go down.

Tell me, are you willin?
To keep on with the drillin?
It’s a beautiful sight
To see radiation at night
Living in a fracking gasland.

I Don't Want Them Non-chemical Protecting 100% Leather Boots.....

Yesterday I was in my local shoe store, looking for some sneakers.  I prefer to “buy local” as that is what promotes business and keeps small stores open.  While I was there, a young man came in, looking at the work boots display.  He was looking for non-steel toe boots, although (he said) the company he works for requires them.  In his accent that bespoke of him coming from Texas, he said he had issues with the toe box on steel boots, and was hoping to find something that looked like steel boots, but weren’t..  The owner showed him some boots that were 100% leather, non-steel toe.  “Oh no”, he said, “I can’t buy those; they wear out after about three to four weeks”.  “How so?”, asked the owner.  “The antifreeze and the fracking chemicals that I spill on them wear through the leather and the boots are history after just a few weeks", was the reply.  

Hmmm.  I wonder how the environment, where this man is standing when he spills his chemicals, holds up to this abuse.  If 100% leather wears out with fracking fluid, oil, etc., in just three weeks, what do you think this fracking fluid, oil, etc, is doing to soil, plant life, and topography when it goes unnoticed?  Can you get the picture?

Day 4 --- Invasion!

The seismic trucks came; not the ones laying the cables, but the actual trucks.  Thankfully, I was home to take some pictures.  They came up the road, thundering, roaring, spewing diesel fumes, and stopped in front of my house–--and very close to my water well.  Three trucks, each with a heavy metal plate that drops and lays on the surface.  All three drop their plates, then send vibrations through the earth.  It rattled the house, the trees, and me.  Hopefully, the things below-- such as my water well, basement rafters, tree roots, etc.--are okay.



It’s obvious that the worker didn’t contact his project manager and my pragmatic mind never thought he would.  Sure, I can tolerate most things, but I don’t like this idea of being invaded–and that’s exactly what it is..  If you want this, you sign up for it, and “they” come and ruin YOUR land, YOUR water, etc.  But leave me out.  Draw a perimeter around me, and stay off my property, out of my way, and leave the thundering sonic booms to someone else to deal with.

 Interestingly, this would be a great cause of action for an attorney.  The invasion of the booms under the soil, to me, is considered trespass.  Just as if someone wanted to dig an underlayment for pipe and in so doing, trespassed onto another’s property.  And I have not given them access–at all.  Every time they have requested, I have refused.  If we own what is beneath us, all the way down to the core of the earth, why hasn’t someone come up with this testing as a cause of action for trespass?  Surely, the seismic booms were outside the easement on the road; I felt them standing in my yard.  And the pictures clearly show how close to the house, and my water well, these trucks were.

While we can't do anything about natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc., we can do something about this.  And yet, it's a mega monster that feeds people money; some of whom need it and some who are greedy.

Day 3

The other day I decided to do some research.  I wanted to find out just what company is doing the seismic testing on my road, in an attempt to get some information as to an actual date.  This would then tell me when I needed to harvest my apples, or if I had enough time to let them stay on the trees a few more days.  So I called the biggest gas company here–Shell.  They, although being nice, couldn’t tell me anything, and referred me to another gas company, as well as DOT.  So I called them both and both men were nice, but couldn’t tell me anything.  One referred me to another company, which did seismic testing..  So I called them–all the way to Houston, TX, just to get a local phone number.  Again, another dead end.

After nine long distance phone calls, and no answer to my question, I finally gave up.  It’s pretty scary to think there are so many people and companies out here who don’t know what is going on.(or maybe they do know what’s going on, but they’re not saying anything.)

Then just yesterday, the seismic trucks were coming down the road, with eight workers behind.  In my once-fluent Spanish, I asked a gentleman who was laying the seismic cable.  “Cuando de la fecha?”, I asked.  “No se” was the reply, then pointed to a man in a blue hard hat.  I asked the man in the hard hat;  he couldn’t tell me the name nor give me the phone number of the Project Manager, nor could he give me a business card, yet the company name was clearly designated on the side of his truck  I told him my dilemma.  “Just give me a few more weeks”, I said.  He said he’d talk to his PM when he got back to the office.  

Then a DOT truck pulled up and I recognized my friend I’d seen around.  I asked him, and he couldn’t tell me; he said he was out checking roads to see if they were bad.  My friend let on that he was suspicious of the seismic stuff.  He said they, the gas companies, did it 35 years ago, and laid pipe and much of that is now producing (that’s why there is gas in my area and has been for a while).  He also said he couldn’t see why they couldn’t use the same setup, same pipe, etc.  He, like me, feels that this latest seismic has to do with oil.  

Here’s an interesting observation of the number of vehicles on my road, within a 1 hour time frame, all related in some way to this testing.  
Number of seismic workers: 8
Number of seismic trucks: 3
Number of DOT trucks on the road, checking road surfaces: 3
Number of DOT workers: 6
There was even a truck from downstate, sent by a company to direct traffic, containing four workers, although the only traffic that day was from the other trucks.

Lots of manpower, lots of machinery, and right outside my front door.

Day 2---Markers near me

Last night I did what I always do in mid-August--–go out after dinner and check my garden.  My vegetable garden and outlying orchard are my soul.  They are the places I go to when I’m stressed over having to be in the house all day.  Sometimes I sit on my orange garden bench and do nothing.  But really, I’m doing something--I’m communing.  I’m allowing the peace of Nature to come through me and fill me with Her song.

Sometimes I will be out there for hours; just sitting.  And sometimes, like last night, I’ll pick green beans, cucumbers, and any other item that is ripe.  As I was sitting, looking at my cantaloupe, I noticed markers along the road that divides my property.  Small orange and blue markers with numbers on them.  Could this be as a result of the helicopter flying overhead the day before, with something that looked like a WWII torpedo dangling from it?  What does this mean?  I asked around and found that the markers have to do with seismic testing.  Seismic testing?  Again?  Didn’t you (the gas company) pound my house enough last year with your seismic testing?  The thump-thump-thumping that felt like sonic booms, rattled my windows (and inner being) and forced my dog to the basement?  Why do you want to do this again?  You already have two vertical wells in less than 1/4 mile from me.  What is it you hope to find now?  

What will this mean for my organic apples?  The trees are close to dropping their fruit and if this seismic testing starts, they will lose their fruit sooner than they are ripe and I will lose my crop.  Is this what is meant by the gas company “bringing jobs to the area”?  That I will have to find another way to grow my apples and garden?

Day 1

Out my kitchen window

I don’t like blogs; I don’t do Facebook, I don’t tweet, I don’t have a MySpace page, and I haven’t done any YouTube videos.  In fact, I’m pretty Internet "un-friendly".  However, certain things in my life have recently come to the surface and it is only through this blog that I can find my voice to say them. My goal is to share with you the changes, and my fears, in an attempt to give you a better picture of what is going on in the world outside your doorstep.

I live in Northeastern Pennsylvania, more toward the center of the state.  I moved to this area over 8 years ago from Southern California.  The two states are vastly different.  From an area with polluted skies, polluted beaches, traffic and overcrowding, to wide open spaces, blue sky and trees-–lots of them.  It is here where I have found my soul.  And my world is changing in ways that overwhelm and frighten me.

Since I’ve been living here, I’ve been more in tune with the cycles of Nature.  The winters, with their cold snowy days, the spring, with the robins and their complainant chirping about something unknown; they were my alarm clock.  The summer with its hot sun, and the fall–Oh the fall!  But now it is a rare treat to hear the robins.  The snow is now pinking and the fall has lost Her colors.  And summer brings on air pollution-- the likes I haven’t seen in a very long time.

I am in the middle of the Marcellus Shale “play”, and some other type of fossil fuel deposit that has yet to be revealed but is what I believe to be oil, (although the gas companies aren’t letting on they are looking for it),  and I am overwhelmed by the changes.  What was once a blue sky at sunrise and sunset is now replaced with haze tinted with orange and pink.  Even the storm clouds no longer have their silver linings, but pink ones.  What was once a sleepy town is replaced by noise of traffic from water trucks, drilling trucks, fracking trucks and anything else gas related.  Neighbors are in conflict over who “signed up” and who didn’t.  And the ones who did, have a glow in their eyes, as if they are proud they “beat Mother Nature into submission”.  Money is a great mistress; it gives one temporary satisfaction and makes them hungry for more.  And money is what is driving my world into ruin.

The neighbors to the south of me signed up; having an 8-inch gas pipeline traverse their property.  I was offered money for this venture; to the tune of the equivalent of an electric double wall oven.  While the size of the pipe might not seem a lot, the amount of devastation to lay this pipe is phenomenal.  I have seen firsthand the damage done to property and trees by heavy equipment and people driving that equipment.  "Oh yes, the land gets put back", the gas companies say, but they forgot one important thing--–the trees.  Can they "put back" the 60 foot maple they tore out?  Can they transplant another 100 year old fir?  Can they find another tree similar to the one you and your grandpa planted?  Sure, the land “gets put back”; Mother Nature in her way tries to repair the wounds we have given Her as best as She can.  And She too is feeling overwhelmed.

The neighbors to the southwest of me have signed up.  A vertical gas well now sits on their property, waiting to be fracked.  The thought of this brings me dread.  Fracking is the process by which a horizontal bore is drilled from a vertical well, in the attempt to break (frack) rock and force natural gas back out the hole.  But the problem is with leakage.  The gas finds a way to release, and sometimes this is back to the surface, in ground water or the aquifer which is used as our water supply, or it travels somewhere else in its attempt to get away from the pressure.  Who can tell where it goes?  The gas companies can’t and they bank on everything going right.  Right now I am less than 1500 feet from this well, and I will be less than 500 feet from the fracked well.  And there will be as many as six horizontal fracked wells coming off this one wellhead.

There are more vertical wells drilled around me; another four in fact.  And when all is said and done, this number will at least double.  Multiply that by six and I don’t need to tell you the amount of devastation, danger and other substantial negatives to this situation.

I have a friend who is worried; she can’t water her fruit trees or vegetable garden.  The state has authorized withdrawal of water from a creek--our main tributary--near her, and she is worried that if she waters her property, her well will run dry.   So she hopes it rains on her vegetables; her main source of food.  

Many people I know have signed up; happy they chose this route.  They feel that because they laid out guidelines for drilling in their lease that those guidelines will be honored.  But truly, can one believe that?  Recently an article appeared in a local magazine about a gas company damming up our main tributary to obtain water for fracking.  This was completely illegal.  Only when a nearby resident began filming the process then sending the pictures to a local writer as well as the Department of Environmental Protection, (and the article came as a result), were people made aware.  But Mother Nature slapped this company in the face.  Just a few short months after the building of the illegal dam, She let loose a torrential storm which destroyed it.  The DEP stepped in and scolded the company, forcing them to obtain water in a different way.  The company, to my knowledge, wasn’t fined.

Are mistakes like these on my horizon?  I come from an area with lots of development.  I used to work for attorneys who represented clients who had illegal things done to their property, or wildlife that had been displaced or ruined.  And I am a pragmatist.  How can I hope that here will be different? 

People here do things mostly on a handshake.  The honor system still rules in some areas.  And it is this thinking that I feel is leading people down a dangerous road.  A farmer near me signed up.  And because the gas company couldn’t properly contain the spent fracking water in a holding pond, it did what water does-–ran off into a creek.  From which the farmer’s cattle drank and are now quarantined.  This water contained contaminants such as benzene, propylene glycol and some other undisclosed substances due to a loophole in the environmental protection laws under Haliburton.  What is interesting to note is that people ARE finding out; as surreptitious as companies want to be over what they feel is “proprietary”.  And I’m thankful for the information.