Fracking issues on your land??/

Fstforward said
One of the problems, a truly comprehensive, accurate water test does not come cheap. Soooo, people around here(western Pa) who have wells, have paid the el cheapo water test fee, that says, potable or not potable, but not the comprehensive test that details everything in the water, by amounts and safety levels. So, then comes someone into the area, does fracking, people end up making some money out of it, pay for the comprehensive test, and find out their water is unsafe, and viola, blame it on the fracking. It's estimates that of all the wells in Pennsylvania, over half are unfit for consumption, but the people either can't afford, or wont pay for the full test.

And, as was stated earlier, gas fracking is done at a depth of, normally, over a mile to almost 8000 feet.

FF

And, I'd almost bet that a lot of those wells also had sulfur in 'em to begin with. Or heavy metals. Hard not to have to combat the chemicals that already in the water table... oh, say, for the last couple thousand years. And these are chemicals that are naturally occurring. And not exactly "safe."

Lead, mercury, sulfur, all things that really shouldn't be consumed, but as said, comes back as "potable" on a cheap test because of so many parts per million. For someone to think that the water table is pure is funny, to me. Walk into my sister's house and smell the sulfur. Taste my business partner's tap water when the water softener and the filters are turned off and I'll guarantee you that you'll spit it back out. Both on wells, neither one of them in a drilling state.

One of the interesting things about discussions such as this is that people complain only about certain aspects and don't complain about everything. Fracking bad! But then overlook certain facts like PA has added over 300,000 new jobs since drilling began or NG is relatively inexpensive compared to petroleum based products. We want the jobs! We want the revenue that comes with the jobs! We want cheap energy! Just don't drill to do it. (Not all wells have to fracked, by the way, and fracking isn't the only thing I hear the environmentalists complaining about, most around here are against drilling altogether and use fracking as just one example as to the reasons not to drill.)

Being this close to Ithaca I always like hearing some of the more, shall we say, two-faced aspects to the debate. The environmentalists there are calling for more clean energy NG burning transit buses, then at the same time are screaming that drilling can't take place. Um, then how are we going to get that "clean energy NG" for the transit buses?

Did I read on here where someone is saying that money is greasing palms and the politicians are turning the other way? I'd like to see an example, please, because all I hear about coming out of Northern PA is that special use taxes for the roads are being looked at, extra taxes specifically on drilling are being looked at, extra sales taxes on FR clothing is being looked at, etc, all taxes that are aimed at the drilling industry and the employees of such.