Urban drilling’s guinea pigs
By: A. Squeaky Wheel
Tags: activists, Allegheny County, Lincoln Place, Lincoln Place Action Group, neighbors, Pittsburgh, Ron Gulla
Category: Uncategorized
Five members of the Lincoln Place Action Group visit Ron Gulla's farm to imagine what Marcellus drilling might look and smell like adjacent to their Pittsburgh neighborhood. From left to right are Barb and Pete Pribila, Gulla, Liz and Mark Schneider, and Lisa Kocsis.
This fall, landmen for Chesepeake Energy began targeting the residents of Lincoln Place, a Pittsburgh suburb, asking them to sign industry-written leases allowing several deep wells in their area, including one within two blocks of the Mifflin Elementary School.
Even if the companies can drill underneath their suburban properties safely, residents are concerned about the air and noise pollution that accompanies drilling for large volumes of wet gas. Processing plants, pipelines, and compressor stations produce toxic emissions and constant noise.
In Texas, “Plumes of toxic, smog-causing chemicals from Barnett Shale natural-gas operations are so common that inspectors find them nearly every time they look,” the Dallas Morning News wrote after examining government records. “What’s more, the inspectors have rarely looked.”
Barb Pribala teared up after smelling the gases escaping from the large green produced water tanks on Gulla’s farm. “What will happen if my children breathe this every day?” she asked.
The residents are also concerned about losing their woods, their property values, and their quality of life. Many of them moved to Lincoln Place because it is an urban location with significant green space.
“Minutes from downtown, the neighborhood is similar to suburban neighborhoods found hours away from the city,” trumpets the the Pittsburgh city council website. “It is not unusual to find flocks of wild turkey and deer roaming the greenways of this quiet but growing community.”
If drilling happens there, the patch of woods behind their houses may be leveled and replaced with an industrial zone.
Read a news story about gas drilling in the 31st Ward.
Listen to group members on Rustbelt Radio [at 3:50] or on KDKA’s The Chris Moore Show.
Group members made their own documentary to show their neighbors:
Read about the effects of urban drilling in Flower Mound, Texas. Texas has lots of urban drilling, including drilling in downtown Forth Worth.
You can contact the group at their blog http://lpactiongroup.blogspot.com/
2 comments on “Urban drilling’s guinea pigs”
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- The internet age will make it impossible for oil and gas companies to keep their long legacy of social, environmental, and economic messes hidden from public view.
You should make sure the information you read in Texas about Flower Mound is accurate before yelling fire.
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and Kleinfelder Central, Inc tested the air around Flower Mound and the highest level of Benzene was 1.07 ppb this is well below levers for any concern.
What you failed to publish is all the successful wells that are producing in Texas and all the funding that has helped secure many jobs for the future and keep the economy stable.
I thought the citizens of Flower Mound were trying to prevent fires before they started?
What is your connection to this issue, Will? Do you work for Williams or have any other conflicts of interest?
Here’s some recent news about Williams trying to improve its image before the upcoming elections.
If the natural gas production facilities are anything like the ones I’ve seen in PA, where I’ve had headaches just by standing near them for 20 minutes, I wonder about the test parameters, including the fact that the study was conducted on a single day.
The same study also notes that carbon disulfide was above short term effects screening levels.