The whole world is now learning about other false claims about the hydrofracking method of gas drilling being used in the Marcellus Shale. Many are responding by stopping it in its tracks. New York State has a moratorium on gas drilling, and the State Senate is calling for an outright ban. Over 30 minicipalities or counties surrounding the Finger Lakes enacted bans or resolutions regarding Marcellus Gas drilling operations. These enactments have been sponsored by medical associations, governing councils, attorney generals, farmers and citizens. In New Jersey, the Senate has voted to ban hydrofracking, the House has voted to establish a moratorium on hydrofracking, France is about to do the same, and several British scientists are pressing their government to do so as well.

In Pennsylvania, the more than 2,000 gas wells already drilled with hydrofracking have brought us exploding wells, contamination of the Susquehanna River and other waterways, air increasingly polluted by compressors at the drilling sites and by the growing truck traffic. And, the list goes on, as we all know.

Probably the most immediate threat is to our water supply. For the second straight year, “American Rivers,” a non-profit organization that has been monitoring U/S. rivers for 75 years, described the Susquehanna River as the “most endangered” one in the United States. On its way down from Cooperstown, N.Y., where it originates, the river passes through parts of New York and Pennsylvania where the gas industry has plans for thousands upon thousands of gas wells. American Rivers web site states that: “The threat to the river posed by the natural gas industry and horizontal hydrofracturing will eclipse the environmental legacy of the lumber and coal-mining industries combined…”

If ever there was a red flag, this is one.  No matter what the governor and his party do, we are already besieged by increadible incompetency in the way gas drilling is regulated in the state. It’s worse than you can probably imagine. On April 14, the Associated Press reported that, behind doors as part of a law suit, DEP staffers revealed that regulators had engaged in the following practices in checking gas drilling applications for approval:

• First of all, DEP approved all but 31 of the 7,019 gas drilling applications that they have processed since 2005. That’s less than 1/2 of one per cent.  And what follows are a few examples of why this happens.
• In gas well permitting DEP does not consider whether proposed gas wells comply with municipal zoning and planning laws.
• In one DEP permitting office, one geologist and one supervisor did not know the agency is supposed to give extra scrutiny to applications for wells near high quality streams and rivers.
• DEP doesn’t consider the cumulative environmental impact of wide scale drilling in a concentrated area.
• In one regional office, the last two people who signed off on a permit said they spent an average of two minutes on each of them.

In other words, crucial elements of the industry are simply not regulated, and the government at the state level is almost entirely on the side of drillers to get what they want. So, why should we trust the preparedness of any drilling, or drilling service, company that comes to our twons with a drilling permit in hand? The only way to avoid having to pick up the pieces of DEP regulatory breakdown is to take the rein into your own hands and pass an ordinance that protects our towns and townships from the gas drilling industry, DEP , and the politicians in Harrisburg.