— The one commodity more precious than any other substance on earth is water. In Pennsylvania, deep-well natural gas drilling into the Marcellus Shale and other rock formations threatens the safety of our water as never before.

New York has placed a moratorium on drilling until the state can develop procedures, regulations and staffing to properly monitor the drilling. In Pennsylvania, officials – though admittedly totally unprepared – chose to allow drilling and to tax gas extractions.

The gas industry is spending lots of money lobbying for concessions, such as horizontal drilling under properties whose owners have not agreed, and limitations on zoning so that local communities cannot protect themselves by restricting drilling.

The industry does not want to be regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Pipeline companies are trying to obtain the legal status of utilities so they will have the power of eminent domain and can seize property as they wish.

The average land area for a well site is five acres, and every site needs an access road and a pipeline connection. Thousands, and possibly millions, of acres could be taken from agriculture, forest and watersheds, hunting and recreation and living space – for well sites and new pipelines. Every well site requires millions of gallons of water – delivered in hundreds of tanker trucks. Dangerous, toxic wastewater stored in open ponds has leaked and polluted streams.

The gas industry, armed with a drilling technology known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” now has the means of economically reaching gas-bearing rock formations deep in the earth. The gas is extracted by blasting with explosives and injecting fluids under high pressure to expand the fractured rock to release the trapped gas.

When productivity of a well is low because of the huge volume of injected fluids, nitrogen is pumped under high pressure into the bottom of the borehole to enhance the flow-back of the frack liquids. Only a small portion of the fluid is  removed. Most stays in the ground.

The many vertical faults in subsurface rock formations cause a concern that these toxic liquids and salts will migrate to water tables. No one knows if, or when, that contamination might occur.

John Hanger, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said, “Fracking wastewater is one of the most toxic substances on earth.”

Incredibly, the gas drilling industry wants to dispose of frack wastewater by pumping it into rivers and streams, but DEP said no. The industry appealed to the Independent Regulatory Commission and lost 4-1.

Frack wastewater destroys municipal sewage treatment plants and requires special high-hazard treatment facilities, one of which is planned for Somerset County.

Citizens and officials in the region must now be concerned about airborne carcinogens and the safe disposal of liquid effluent or sludge. Discharge into any watercourse is questionable. Sludge must be rendered totally inert.

Large companies from other states and other nations are coming to Pennsylvania to lease land and drill for gas. Gov. Ed Rendell said, “This discovery (gas) holds the promise of significant economic development and the creation of new jobs, but it has placed new and difficult stresses on local services, harmed water supplies and destroyed local roads.”

We rely on our state and federal officials to protect our water, land and communities. But we learned from the gulf oil spill that government and the industry can be in collusion. Government failed us, and we saw that the industry could not be trusted.

If we are to have deep-well gas drilling, it must be done with every care and protection for our water and citizens. Pennsylvanians must make clear that the safety of our drinking water and our quality of life are not for sale.

-- We should expect our representatives in Congress to sponsor and support the FRAC Act (House Bill 2766 and Senate Bill 1215) that would remove the gas industry exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act. Government needs to know the chemicals used in fracking so they can be tracked if, and when, they migrate into water tables and wells. The gas industry must be required to protect drinking water.

-- At the state level, Pennsylvania needs a moratorium on deep-well drilling. Six-digit fines and bonds are pocket change to a drilling company. Multimillion, and multibillion, dollar fines are required.

-- Pipeline companies must not be given powers of eminent domain in order to pursue their own interests. To do so would be a gross distortion of the legal basis for the power of eminent domain.

-- Taxing the gas drilling industry is not enough. Pennsylvanians deserve a direct benefit as partial compensation for the adverse impact on the state. New revenue should be used to break the cycle of broken systems, such as funding public education, by replacing local property taxes with increased state funding.

Pennsylvanians deserve a real “homestead exemption,” such as Florida’s, where all resident property owners have $25,000 deducted from their property valuation. Or why not a “citizens dividend”? If Alaska can view the leasing or sale of natural resources as the common property of all citizens and distribute an annual citizens dividend (about $900 a person), why can’t Pennsylvanians have that benefit?

-- Pennsylvanians should franchise, on a bid basis, gas drilling in accordance with a state plan. Profits from the sale of natural gas are likely best made by piping the gas to processing plants, where the gas would be liquefied and sold on the world market.

The state Public Utilities Commission regulates natural gas distribution companies. Why can’t the state also regulate natural gas-drilling companies and allocate the extracted gas between domestic and world markets? Why can’t that huge newfound reservoir of gas be first allocated to meet home heating needs at a low cost to Pennsylvanians?

If our water, farms, forests and quality of life are to be saved, it will be because of the efforts of Pennsylvanians who love this beautiful state. It will not be at the hands of the foreign gas industry or government in collusion with that industry.



Edward Smith of Jackson Township is a retired city and county manager.