What is up with these guys? As some of you know, I subcontract for a small company in PA that transports water to and from gas sites throughout northern PA. Lately, we haven't had work, so a few of us decided to file for unemployement benefits, even though we are still employed.

Multi-million dollar company, and they can't keep things running. Sheesh.

Want to talk about stupidity with these guys? If one guy screws up, they will shut that whole company(contractor) down for a day or two. This includes accidently spilling half a cup of water!

Ugh! end of rant

I assume your hauling water for one of the companies doing hydraulic fracturing in our area. As a large landowner here, I am all for as tight of regulations as possible for these people. In some area'* like a nearby town called Dimmock, they fractured to hard and 48 people have their well/ground water permanently damaged. Several people wells have literally exploded when spring house wells ignited methane. Many people in the area can now ignite the methane as it bubbles out of their taps. One drilling pad less than 2 miles from me pumped the mud to hard and the wellhead blew sending a poisonous slurry of pumping mud hundreds of feet in the air and destroying all vegetation where it landed. Their not making many friends around here even with all the lease money they have been throwing at the locals.

Yea, I work down in your neck of the woods. Probably been past your house a few times.
Iv'e heard of Dimmock, but haven't been there. My question is, how is it they were able to do all this before without causing so much havoc? Or did they? I see well heads all over upstate NY that have been there for many years.

One guy up past Spencer, NY has issues with his well water having gas in it.

But your right on tight regulation, and accidents do happen. I'm not all for what they put in the ground(not that I know WHAT they put in it). And yes, we do get our share of "sourness" from the locals. They tend to take down street sign names, take pop-shots at us etc. But they need to channel that to the companies and the governments to get laws passed to change the way they do this.

And with all the money these companies have, do they not have the ability to research these things better? Use different technology? I mean come on, they have so much money, I know this one guy that leases about 2 acres of his land just so they could run a 16" water pipe line across the corner of his property. Guess how much per day? $1000 per DAY! And his property is a farm, which means he doesn't have to pay taxes on that.

PM your road name so I can tell the guys to be more quieter, lol.

Wellheads of the recent past just went down and fracturing was localized to the wellhead area. And much shallower than the present. Technology is now such that they can sidedrill once they reach the intended formation. Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas is a "newer technology" but promising enough to float millions of dollars into lawmaker and regulators pockets as they have looked the other way in many states where the problems of it have shown themselves. It'* all about money and fuel. They say that in the Marcellus shale formation below us here in PA/NY there is enough natural gas to power the country for 75 years, and another deeper formation that is many times larger. They drill down 2000 feet then sidedrill in all directions 1/2 mile. 6 sidelegs to each wellhead. Then the fracturing mud is pumped in to split the shale and release the trapped gas. They capture most of it and pump it up but still enough escapes and finds it way up to foul the water. There is no way to do it otherwise. It'* all about traded good groundwater for fuel and groundwater loses. Its hard to say just what long term effects will arise, but that'* not going to stop them. They plan to grid this country with wellheads every square mile and fracture the entire county. There are already 3 wellheads within 3 miles of me, one is less than a halfmile. One is producing, one had the mud explosion, and the third'* permit put on hold while they finish cleanup from the second one. My water is noticeably more cloudy, (never been the cleanest to begin with) but no traces of methane yet. We use a distiller for drinking water.

I personally like the lease money, can't wait for some production royalties; (I will get a share from the thrird well mentioned) but wonder just how much of an environmental disaster this could turn into on the coming years. How you can spiderweb fracture an entire county 2000 feet down and not create problems seems impossible.

This is my 4th scheduled night to work, but they are still telling us to stay home. Last time I worked was March 6th. After tonight, my 4 days off begin.

Currently on hold with the PA unemployment office....crappy hold music. ugh!