Gas drilling can spark neighbor disputes
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From his collection of documentation on gas leasing and drilling near his home, Paul Parker shows a map of gas leases in Hopewell. -
Paul Parker points out the changes to the land near his home in Hopwell during one of his frequent drives.
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Just ask and Paul Parker will take you on a 20-mile drive around Washington County to show you why he has issues with the natural gas industry. It takes about two hours to cover those 20 miles and fit in all of Mr. Parker's commentary, which is delivered with tour-guide gusto:
Explosions on the hill! Stupid legislators! In the industry's pocket! Open gasoline containers! Bunks filled with out-of-state workers! Shady subcontractors! Loud generators! Disclose the fracking fluids! Dead fish everywhere! And the drillers just buried them! It's a Towering Inferno! It's Godzilla! Better yet -- it's Gaszilla!
This tour already has been shared with two busloads of Pittsburgh activists; state Rep. Jesse White, who is a Cecil Democrat; and Mr. Parker's wife, Minna. Along the route, Mr. Parker's pointed finger serves as a look-over-there guide.
It has been about two years since he saw the first signs of a gas drilling boom in the Marcellus Shale formation beneath much of Pennsylvania. Washington County is the most active area for drillers in the western part of the state, with 465 permits signed for drilling in 2009 and 2010.
Mr. Parker's seven acres in Avella are "right in the middle, like the hole in the middle of a doughnut," with neighbors all around him securing hundreds of thousands of dollars through contracts that build rigs up the road from the Parkers' house.
Since touring a damaged farm two years ago, he has said "no" over and over again to the landmen who come knocking with assurances and the neighbors sent to persuade him. His refusal to put a price tag on his land has left the 73-year-old an outsider in the community where he's lived for 37 years.
The Marcellus Shale debate has entered executive boardrooms and congressional hearings, but Mr. Parker is a reminder that the drilling issue is most dramatically playing out as a neighbor-vs-neighbor affair.
And in Mr. Parker's case, it's tough seeing yourself as the enlightened one.
First Published May 29, 2011 12:00 am
