Gas fields get up-close look

MATT HUGHES

mhughes@timesleader.com

The little bus wound its way over green mountains, alongside undeveloped stretches of the meandering Susquehanna River and through some of Pennsylvania’s most pristine wilderness.

Diane Siegmund, second from left, who along with Scott Cannon organized a tour of fracking sites in Bradford County on Sunday. Pictured is a stop to the Hershberger recycling facility in Terry Township, where frack water is stored in large containers.

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But the man inside with the microphone, the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition’s Scott Cannon, said there’s trouble in paradise as he pointed out the changes Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling has brought to Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier.

Here was a drilling rig, there a water withdrawal site and every so often yet another pipeline was laid out in preparation for burial.

The sights were part of the coalition’s “Marcellus Shale Reality Tour,” held Sunday for area legislators, municipal representatives and candidates for political office.

Cannon said the jury is still out on whether there is enough gas below Luzerne County to make drilling here economically viable, but the gas-extraction industry is in full swing close enough to the county line that it’s important for citizens and officials to educate themselves about it.

“We still have to deal with pipelines, compressor stations; they wanted to put a frack water treatment facility in Hanover Township – that was an hour away from the nearest drill site,” Cannon said.

About 15 people attended the tour, including candidate for U.S. representative Bill Vinsko, Wilkes-Barre Administrative Coordinator Drew McLaughlin and Luzerne County Council candidates Kathleen Dobash, Salvatore Licata, Eileen Sorokas and Michelle Bednar.

Group has grown

The trip was a milestone for the coalition, which was founded in January 2010. Member Paula Chaiken said the group had only nine members when she joined in March of that year.

Its membership has since swelled to 250 and the group has gained prominence by rallying around issues such as the attempts of Chief Gathering LLC to install a metering station near the Dallas school campus and the proposed expansion of the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority to treat drilling wastewater.

Some participants said they went on the tour to hear the coalition’s side of the gas-drilling debate and to see for themselves the change gas drilling has brought to the region, but they did not bring preconceived opinions about the issue with them.

“It’s all about information,” Sorokas said. “You can’t beat going firsthand and seeing it. I’ve heard so many things about it; I want to clarify it in my mind.”

“It’s important to learn about all sides of this important issue,” said Vinsko, a Democrat who plans to a 2012 challenge to Republican Lou Barletta in Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District.

“In order to make informed decisions, I wanted to hear from the landowners on both sides of the issue. I also plan to meet with the gas companies to get all sides of the story, but this is an important first step.”

At least one trip participant had already made up his mind about the issue. Throop Borough Council President Tommy Lukasewicz said he has been fighting against the efforts of Keystone Sanitary Landfill to increase its daily intake by 2,500 tons, which would allow it to accept more solid waste from the gas drilling industry.

“I agree more than anyone here probably that this is the worst thing that could happen to Northeastern Pennsylvania,” he said, adding that he believes gas drilling could reverse the progress the area has made in erasing the scars left 50 years ago by coal mining.

Lukasewicz, who attended Mansfield University and often drove through Bradford County to get there, said he “wanted to see firsthand what an area (he) had known about looks like now.”

Contrary views on drilling

And, though he wasn’t invited, the trip brought out one detractor.

Fred Murray of Jackson Township met the bus at the Dallas Shopping Center.

“I’m not protesting,” he said. “I hope they go up and never come back.” Murray said he supports the potential for economic growth offered by drilling in the Marcellus Shale. “I’ve been to 18 meetings and all I’ve seen is negative, negative, negative,” he said. “We live in a county that has 2,100 homes in foreclosure; there’s 700 children in foster homes and right now there’s 300 people eating lunch at the soup kitchen.”

Leaving Murray behind, the bus set off shortly before 10:30 a.m. Tracing a path along the Susquehanna north through Tunkhannock, Wyalusing and Towanda, it visited sites exemplifying the industrial mechanisms of gas drilling, including a well being drilled, a completed well with a compressor station and a freshly cut pipeline easement.

The riders also met with residents who discussed how drilling on their land or nearby has affected their lives and livelihoods.

Dave Buck, owner of Endless Mountains Outfitters in Sugar Run, said increased truck traffic on area roads and the appearance of methane bubbles in the river nearby has deterred former customers from returning to his business, which offers camping and guided kayak tours.

“It raises my stress level to a point where I don’t want to be here any more,” Buck said.

Sherry Vargson gave the group a tour of her farm in Granville Township, where Chesapeake Energy has drilled one well and installed compressor and metering stations and a gathering pipeline. She said her water became contaminated with methane after maintenance activities at the site in June 2010, and lit water from her tap alight for a trip attendees and the media.

The coalition’s guests said the tour provided a great close-up look at the gas industry.

“I’m glad I came,” Vinsko said. “I feel more informed than when I started and in order to be able to effect policy, which I hope to do, you have to go out and meet people to see all sides of the issue.”

“I think the trip served its purpose,” McLaughlin said. “On a day like today, you get beyond the newspapers and the academic papers and see firsthand what’s going on.”

Cannon said the coalition has applied to incorporate itself as a nonprofit, allowing it to collect donations to fund ventures like Sunday’s trip.

In the future, it plans to continue promoting its message with billboards and radio and television advertisements, Cannon said.