DAMASCUS, Pa. - Tim Coulter's farm in this rocky corner of northeastern Pennsylvania is in financial trouble. He's sold off the livestock. There's no market for the timber. And with only 121 acres left, Coulter can't carve off any more of the land that his family has owned for five generations.
»Read story: Marcellus Shale dispute bubbling up in northeast Pennsylvania
»Read story: Marcellus Shale dispute bubbling up in northeast Pennsylvania
Comments (77)
Anybody google earth to look what dish texas looks like? Anybody take a look at the gentlemen who is a politician running for office. Did anyone see how those test were done? And if you are worried about the water you can surly rely on the Delaware River Basin Commission lets see they are concerned about drilling how bout they worry about the sewage plants at Trenton,Morrisville,Philadelphia for a start.— conrailmike- Has anyone of the anti "Gasland" stopped to think what is happening to all that water that is being polluted with carcinogens? It is being used to water livestock and crops, not to mention becoming drinking water for humans. Where does the livestock and crops end up? On our dinner plates! The fracturing process will slowly poison this country's watertable and its citizens if it is allowed to continue in its present form. If so, look for cancer cases to skyrocket and life expectancy rates to significantly decrease. Let's see if the anti "Gasland" crowd are concerned about that!— AHiredGun
- I have lived in this area since the 1960's but I grew up in the suburbs and have a sense of both sides. In my opinion the NWPOA spent time to carefully research the issue and money to hire legal and environmental expertise to create property owner leases that will both protect the environment and allow responsible management of their resources. The property owners behaved reasonably. Have any of the protesters read a responsible lease or do they base their fear on past mistakes (which the NWPOA also perused to protect their members)? It would be sad to see people who have lived here for generations deprived of their right to harvest another crop as they have already done to survive. Do you know that cows produce phosphates which are also bad for our water? Do you expect farmers to get rid of their cows next?— calcurt
- Pennsylvania has been historically taken advantage of without regard to environmental damage. Always one step behind on purpose. Lets talk about the developers that built lots of housing in towns with no sewage treatment or laws protecting the local streams up there. Those are fragile limestone streams that acid rain has even hurt them.— Eric
- If you think this is mostly about protecting the environment, you are naive. It is mostly about wealthy New Yorkers worried about home values and their little "Edenesque" vacation homes, AND plain old politics. The comments here are made by folks with no real understanding of the technology involved, just some "talking points" from the "fundamentally dishonest" Gasland documentary, which probably is as biased and unscientific as "An Inconvenient Truth". But don't let facts, the needs of working folks, and reality get in the way of the fervor to protect my "villa" and the "stickleback guppies" or whatever.— bartfr
- Enjoy the H2S (hydrogen sulfide) that will be released from this. Those up there near the process will not have to worry about the the pollution because H2S in 50ppm will kill you where you stand and it puddles just like propane.— hockee34
- Oh... Where to begin? First, my thoughts to the lady named Marian in the article: those of us who don't believe in reckless drilling with no transparency HARDLY think you are all "poor dumb farmers." On the contrary. YOU must think your neighbors are pretty stupid to believe your artfully crafted talking points (did the PR firm for your lawyers pull those together? Very nice). Yes, no doubt, I am sure the first thing you thought after being offered $3K an acre was how to be a "steward of the land." I am sure that is the first thing that came to your mind. Multiple $3K times your 720 acres and what you get is a humble altruistic motive of "maintaining the land." C'mon, now. Let's cut the bull. Secondly -- those of us who are anti drilling aren't all members of the Sierra Club. Hell, I'm a pro big business card carrying Republican who believes in LESS intervention. But I hardly believe in "NO" intervention. A free market doesn't mean a free for all and given the major repercussions, it is categorically insane to allow these gas companies to drill with no transparency or oversight. That's what many of us are asking for -- yet, you all making us out to be radical environmentalists. Um. Wrong.— dcredhead
- Seems to me a 120 acre farm in the middle of the great New York migration would fetch a couple million; that would allow the farmer to retire, buy another farm further west int the state, or at least move on to a more lucrative occupation. Few of us go through life without having to adapt and change, why is is always a tragedy when a farmer has to do it?— mackwheaton
- You would think that the Marcellus Shale play is the only play in the entire United States. I am a NWPOA member. I support Marian Schweighofer and the additional 1500 landowners that we represent. No one understands the amount of time and energy that has gone into this. For more than 2 years we as land owners stood together and worked diligently to get a lease that protected the environment and ourselves. It was not about the most money we could receive. It was about doing the right thing to protect the environment. It's very upsetting to see the community splitting over this. We need to come together and focus our energy on the facts. Understanding what hydraulic fracturing really is and what chemicals are used. I hate to disappoint all of you but if you chew gum you are chewing one of those chemicals that is used in fracking. Our rights as landowners is being taken away from us. We are the only county in the entire state of Pennsylvania that is not able to move forward. We are good stewards of the land. We care about the water. We want COMMON SENSE REGULATIONS put in place. People need to get better educated and stop watching HBO movies! It's a movie....that is selling tickets. I bet ya Josh Fox is rolling in the money these days thanks to all of you! He had a brillient fictional movie he made. Does he realize how much he is frightening people with his fictious non-sense?— applepie
I have to laugh. This is about gas drilling companies that want free reign over landowner's land and mineral rights and are VERY unhappy that landowners have gotten smarter over time. The drilling companies do NOT make for long term jobs or job growth. The drilling companies do make pollution. They are not "local" drilling companies (Shell, Exxon, India, France, Netherlands, Texas, Oklahoma). PA has a long history of coddling mining (and drilling) companies and then having tax payers foot the bill when the companies walk away....As for the landowners, they have gotten much smarter and now don't sign away all rights to their land like they used to and they get a much better price(see the wyoming cnty or Lackawanna cnty lease examples at their respective landowners web sites) for the land ($5000 per acre for a five year lease). I can agree that most people have tried to be good stewards of the land and that there is a history of good stewardship but historically that good stewardship has been about the local impact but now it is about the money (Lackawanna cnty has leased 38,000 acres 1/8th of the county to gas drillers including 120 acres by a cemetery association and 115 acres by a Baptist church, both near residential areas) and NOT about good stewardship of the land as it impacts a far larger population. The gas drilling companies will impact the quality of the drinking water for millions of people living downstream UNLESS IT IS DONE CORRECTLY. Yes do your research, check out teh efforts environmental groups have made to be good stewards, check out teh efforts of county landowners associations efforts at trying to be good stewards and check out the abysmal records of the drilling companies for being good stewards and for screwing the local communities. THIS NEEDS TO BE RIGHT. A few people can make good money at EVERYBODY'S EXPENSE.— nebulus- Mr. Maykuth brings up the census data information in order to make a point that Wayne County is part of NYC's orbit, and that over the past two decades, the way he presents it, there has been a robust growth rate of 28%. What Mr. Maykuth fails to mention is that 19% of that growth occurred between the 1990 and 2000 census, leaving a growth rate of 9% over the two decades, between 2000 and 2010, or more importantly, only 7.5% from 2000 through 2010. The 1990's saw the dot com bubble, and the beginning of the residential real estate bubble. 2001 saw 9/11. As a previous poster pointed out, the growth rate has more than plummeted since 2007 or so, and it does not look like people will be breaking down the Wayne County doors, anytime soon, unless gas drilling and shale fracking is allowed to proceed. Then, we will have an influx of out of state workers, but they will not be from NYC. They will have Texas, Oklahoman and Louisianan accents. Who knows, with the drilling scenario, we could get the worst of both worlds, pollution from drilling, and pollution from the building of shoddy housing for the 10-20 year workforce.— Jim Barth
- Wah Wah big energy ..... These lifers needs this influx of cash ... And fact of the matter is we need the Oil ... its a longer process but we need it— kdubs215
- In "When the Middle East Came to PA", we see the local impact of gas companies. Few people will benefit from the gas drilling and the potential impact on the quality of rural PA life is devastating. The DRBC are doing what DEP are scared and too politically connected to try: protect the resources of PA for the citizens. The mineral rights are ridiculous to even comprehend. You own something 5000 ft below you? If the farmers and Gas companies were so forthright, why is the speed of this drilling, lease arrangements, and company switching so blinding (a little less than two years for most). The roads up in Bradford county are clogged with white pick ups and water trucks and the price of real estate is rising with all outside money, that will continue to remain outside. The rural people of the state are being railroaded by the first glimpse of cash in forty years and they are taking it to the peril of the state and their way of life.— jamesdugan
- Once again we see the city yuppies attacking the farmers in Pennsylvania. These rich yuppies have no idea how farmers produce food that they pick up at Wegmans and other upscale yuppie hangouts. The war against farmers is taking place all over the state; in Lancaster county the Amish are under siege from the rich kids in the central government because their cow manure might get into the Cheaspeake, again the playground of the million dollar yachts and the millionaires who own the US government. Farmers should go on strike and tell the yuppies and the ecology freaks to grow their own food.— Johann
- Here in the Western part of Pennsylvania we're seeing a lot of problems with the shale gas drilling. People and animals are showing up with neuropathies - weakness and heaviness in their legs. Respiratory problems and unusual nosebleeds are also being experienced. Those who are bathing in contaminated water are experiencing everything from rashes to skin lesions to seizures from the vaporized fumes. This can not be an issue determined on the basis of money. People are getting sick. This is a PUBLIC HEALTH issue. This is a HUMAN RIGHTS issue. We must have a moratorium so that this can be studied - without Marcellus Shale industry funding, thank you very much - and so that it can be determined if there is a safe way of doing this. In the meantime, we can not have individual greed, industry greed, and political corruption drive the decisions (as they have been up to this point) particularly when people's LIVES ARE AT RISK.— Beth C
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