A Burning Debate Over Natural Gas Drilling

[phantom power]

Homeowner Stephanie Hallowich is like many in western Pennsylvania who have watched their once-pristine neighborhood become an industrial site. Sprawling plants with flares that reach high into the night, noxious smells, trucks, and containment ponds with unknown chemicals are among the complaints of people who live in areas where natural gas companies have descended.

Hallowich believes three natural gas-drilling operations bordering her property turned her well-water black, forcing her to purchase a tank of fresh water every month.

The air? Uncertain.

"I'm very afraid, health-wise, for the kids, just because of the exposure to the water and the constant not-knowing what we're breathing in outside," she said.

The Hallowich home sits near the center of the Marcellus Shale, an energy-rich geological formation stretching from New York to Tennessee.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/04/eveningnews/main6835996.shtml

[Altoid_Cyclist]

1. People in the Marcellus Region are going to have more and more of this BS in their back yards.

They're being exposed to health risks while the state DEP practically works as the public relations machine for the gas and oil companies.

These people are finding it difficult to sell their houses and they know that it's going to get worse as the number of wells increases. They are being trapped between a rock and a hard place with their health and their childrens' health being at risk if they stay where they are.

"Clean Energy" my ass!

[Nihil]

2. The State should just buy their homes from them ...

... as they have actively supported the destruction of their future
in that location. If the State isn't prepared to do that, they should
ban any future expansion, shut down the existing operations and
compensate those already affected.

That is the "should" side: the "will do" side is that they'll turn
round to the homeowners and say "Tough shit buddy, we've got ours!"

:mad: