In the coming years, several thousand wells may be drilled across western, central, and northeast Pennsylvania or natural gas. These new wells will be drilled into a rock formation known is Marcellus shale, where potentially big reserves of natural gas can be found over a mile underground. In 2008, over 500 gas wells were drilled in the Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania, and even with the recession, gas production is projected to increase annually for the next several years.

This drilling could be an economic boon or the state, but unless it is done right, it could also be an environmental nightmare. There is an enormous potential to do great damage to our rivers and drinking water sources if we drill without regard to our environment. We don’t want to make the same mistakes from the coal “gold rush” in the last century…mistakes that literally killed off whole streams and polluted rivers that we are still paying to clean up!

Marcellus shale wells are very different from traditional natural gas wells. Not only are they much deeper and bigger, but they pose new dangers to our natural resources.

1. They use much more water, up to several million gallons per well. If this water is pulled out of nearby streams, it could de-water them, killing all the fish that live in them.

2. They produce a million or more gallons each of heavily polluted wastewater…water that is several times more salty than the ocean! Few treatment plants in Pennsylvania are currently equipped to take the salts, heavy metals, and toxic chemicals out of the wastewater. As
a result, some of it is being dumped into our rivers without treatment! By 2011, the state projects that gas wells will be generating 19 million gallons of wastewater per day.

3. The well pads are bigger than normal, up to 5 acres each. Hundreds of these wells located in pristine parts of the state, and the roads and pipelines needed to connect them, could damage streams with stormwater runoff and fragment our forest habitat. Gas companies already have hundreds of thousands of acres of and leased for drilling across the state.

Some damage has already been done. Several streams in Western Pennsylvania were dried up by drillers who pulled out all their water. Late in 2008, industrial users and drinking water consumers along the Monongahela River were warned not to use the water because it was too polluted, in part from discharges of contaminated later from Marcellus shale wells. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has documented that areas of freshwater streams have been turned to brackish water due to the high salt content of the drilling wastewater being dumped.

Even more alarming, some residents in Dimock in northeast Pennsylvania have had their drinking water wells contaminated since gas drilling began in their town last year. One resident’s well exploded from natural gas getting into their local groundwater, and some homes can literally set their tap water on fire from the contamination (Click here for video and information).

With all the money at stake from this drilling, there is huge pressure on state agencies like DEP to relax the rules and make it easier for drillers. Clean Water Action is working with the PA Campaign for Clean Water to press DEP to enforce its existing rules and to strengthen the
standards where needed. For more nformation, contact your local Clean Water Action office.