Invasion of the Marcellus men
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On a beautiful Friday this month, I was working in my vegetable garden when I saw a helicopter fly very low over my house. Attached to it was a long wire carrying multiple orange sacks. The helicopter lowered just beyond my pond and dropped some of the sacks. About a half-hour later it flew over again, repeating the procedure.
The next day, I located two of the sacks and met a fellow who said he worked for Geokinetics, a seismic testing company. Armed with a GPS device, he was trying to locate all of the testing materials, which, he said, comprised two stations of dynamite and 23 recording devices.
This was on the property of a neighbor, who had permitted the blasting. My concern was that the dynamite might be near the trails where we ride horses and walk, or -- if the testing company was inexact -- near our spring, from which we drink.
The man explained that he was just a lowly worker and didn't know what was going on. I asked him for a business card, but he didn't have one. He offered to have his boss call me and, within an hour, a charming fellow from McDonald Land Services did so, explaining that he was hired by Williams, a Marcellus Shale gas drilling company, to conduct seismic testing on the property next to ours. I asked if he would kindly tell me when the dynamite would be detonated so that we could take precautions. With a lovely Arkansas accent, he agreed to do so.
Then I wondered: Why am I asking someone from a faraway state to notify me when he is about to set off explosives near my house? Shouldn't I have been offered information or help from my federal, state or local governments?
Instead, I turned to the Penn State Marcellus Shale Center for Outreach and Research, which advises landowners to be vigilant about protecting their water supply during seismic testing.
Fine, but where does that leave those of us who live in rural communities as we face a massive, confusing invasion of industrial operations? We are left to our own devices to protect ourselves, our land, our water, our air, our animals and our children.
First Published November 27, 2011 12:00 am
