Left out the sarc tag. The shale (actually, *any*) NG rigs I have seen are quite benign, usually a small cluster of gear in the middle of “nowhere” once in operation. Enviros, however, deeply fear shale exploration once it includes liquid hydrocarbon product because they fear massive ugly pits with accompanying steam generating gear and a dig out/break up processing operation that creates tremendous amounts of waste oil and potential groundwater pollution. And those that I have seen are indeed pretty ugly.
I have worked in and have been oil and gas exploration (drilling) my whole life and I have no idea what you are trying to describe.
Massive ugly pits? accompanying steam generating gear and a dig out/break up processing operation that creates tremendous amounts of waste oil and potential groundwater pollution? The “pits” are drilling fluid and the steam (water vapor) seen is from subsurface heat not some monster machinery spewing waste oil (beleive me damn little oil is let go at $70 a bbl).