Marcellus Shale - Gas Wells

September 14, 2010

Film shows potential gas drilling risks in county

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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A local video producer has released a short film warning of the potential dangers and negative effects of natural gas drilling on Luzerne County.

“Frack to the Future: What Luzerne County needs to know about Gas Drilling” focuses on the proximity of proposed drilling operations near drinking water supplies and the implications of truck traffic on U.S. Route 11 or neighboring roadways if the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority follows through with a plan to build a proposed drilling wastewater treatment facility in Hanover Township.

The film, produced by Scott Cannon, owner of Video Innovations in Plymouth, features interviews with state Rep. Phyllis Mundy, state Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski and Dr. Tom Jiunta, founder of the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition (GDAC).

A member of the GDAC himself, Cannon said Monday that he thought producing the film was “the best way I could educate people on what may come. If there is a gas boom in Luzerne County, it’s going to change the future of the Wyoming Valley. I don’t think it’s going to change it for the better.”

Cannon said the film is not meant to be a balanced “news piece,” but a presentation on “the negative aspects of what may happen” if drilling in the county takes off like it has in the Northern Tier counties of Bradford, Susquehanna and Tioga.

The video can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/GADCLuzerneCounty. It soon will be posted on the GDAC website – gdacoalition.org.

Cannon said a goal of the film in addition to education is to help promote House Bill 2694, which, coincidentally, Mundy introduced on Monday.

The bill calls for a three-year moratorium during which no new permits could be issued for the discharge of drilling wastewater into surface waters.

The bill also would restrict well site preparations or drilling from occurring within flood plains and would require notification of a driller’s permit application be given to the applicable municipality, county, county conservation district, state Fish and Boat Commission and local community water system when new permits are again issued.

During the moratorium, the state Department of Environmental Protection would be required to evaluate potential alternatives for wastewater disposal and then enforce those alternatives, provided they are environmentally sound.

DEP also would be required to establish an online tracking system to monitor the storage, transportation and disposal of oil and gas drilling wastewater.

Also under the bill, DEP would be required to conduct site visits before issuing erosion and sediment control permits, and permits would be issued only to applicants that develop appropriate erosion and sediment control and storm water management plans.

Mundy said the legislation would require DEP, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Fish and Boat and Game commissions to work together to provide an all-encompassing report on the impact of drilling and future oil and gas activities.

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