Groups rally for Marcellus Shale gas drilling restrictions
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HARRISBURG -- Susquehanna County resident Victoria Switzer came to an anti-Marcellus Shale gas drilling rally here Tuesday, and she was angry.
Since 2003, Ms. Switzer has lived in the small town of Dimock, in the state's northern tier between Scranton and the New York border. In the summer of 2009 -- after deep underground drilling for natural gas began in her area -- she said the water that came from her well turned "bubbly, smelly and foamy" and was undrinkable.
Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., which is drilling in dozens of locations in the county, insisted it didn't cause the problem. But Ms. Switzer said Cabot did start trucking in bottled drinking water last October for her and 22 other families whose wells also were fouled. Ms. Switzer said that in her opinion, there has to be some connection between the underground drilling and the "methane migration" that has ruined so many water wells in the area.
And lately, she added, other chemicals, such as ethyl benzene, xylene and toluene have shown up in her water. She thinks the "fracking" process used to extract natural gas, where chemicals are mixed with large amounts of water and pumped underground to force out the gas, is responsible.
"How did these chemicals get into my water?" she said. "I didn't have this problem before the drilling started."
She got a lot of support from the dozens of environmental groups who rallied at the Capitol in support of several Marcellus-related bills -- one that would impose a tax on gas extracted from the hundreds of wells around the state, another that would direct state environmental officials to more closely monitor the effect of drilling on streams and underground water, and a third bill that would impose a one-year moratorium on drilling any new wells.
The activists demanded that the Legislature act on the bills before leaving in mid-October to go home and campaign for the Nov. 2 election, but time for action is growing short. So far legislators haven't been able to agree on specifics for a gas severance tax, which could generate $100 million to be split among state agencies and municipalities that are facing higher costs related to gas drilling.
First Published September 22, 2010 12:00 am
