Fracking or drinking water: Must we choose?

cnbc ^ | 9-12-2014

[Ditter]

Sorry I didn’t see where you mentioned that.

[Russ]

I had it going on within 300 yds. of my well. I had the water tested several times with no sign of contamination. Same goes for our neighbors. This was in Potter co. Pa.

[Balding_Eagle]

How many years do you expect the situation to last?

You may not be involved enough to know the time frame details, but maybe you can make an educated guess.

5 years? 3 years?

[4yearlurker]

I think they only need the water for the fracking process. The last two days is has quieted down a bit. I'm guessing it's a matter of months not years. When it first started we were all surprised and organized a meeting at the town hall with the local politicians and Gas Co. The did put up "No Brake Zone" signs along the road. It was a very,very noisy Summer.

[Balding_Eagle]

Well, are you sure you’re making the right decision, and for the right reason?

After all, next summer maybe completely different.

On another note, if things are as you described, you can bet your bottom dollar I wouldn’t have stood by and watched the trucks raise hell.

To hell with the ineffective neighborhood meetings, I would have blocked them, forcing the hand of the law to either explain how their driving practices are legal, or arrest the drivers.

They may have laughed at me for the first few days as they passed my house, but they’d have been damn pissed by the time I was done with them.

I have a policy I live by for these types of situations:
Someone is going to be pissed when this is all over, and I am going to make sure it ain’t going to be me.

You’ll be surprised how much peace of mind that brings when setting out to make things right.

[Stegall Tx]

I am telling you how it is when they are fracking near your house

There are 7,000 fracking gas wells within 30 miles of my home. I have had no experience as you describe in 20 years of living around here.

[4yearlurker]

That’s great. I’m not making it up. It happened here this past summer sure enough.

[4yearlurker]

I told my wife I was going to write “water truck escort” on my beat up van and drive 35 MPH in front of the trucks.

[Clinging Bitterly]

I hear ya, the truck traffic is a bugger in areas where the rigs are working. Just in my county in SE New Mexico there are about 50,000 jobs due to the oil industry, and something over $11 billion in economic activity. That's a lot of trucks. Just in my town of about 43,000 people (by far the largest population center in the county), it is estimated that about 15,000 non-residents come and go every day to work, and that is a lot of traffic.

But whatever kind of economic activity you have in an area, it will probably generate a similar measure of road traffic per dollar whether it is oilwell drilling or a retail distribution center or an expanse of cornfields, it is just a natural downside of growth. But at a time when it is desperately needed in most parts of the country, we might just as well grin and bear it. As long as I choose to remain in this area I'll have a good job until I can retire, and then I have that sleepy town on the beach waiting for me back home.