take a picture of springhouse farms along walbert ave, in the 1960s it was a beautiful picturesque type of landscape apart of the Rutz estate, now it is horrible gathering of homes thanks to greed or take a picture of the barn (or where a landmark barn was before they reipped it down this month) at trexler and springhouse rd ....same thing happening in tioga, cant stop progress

That's true "Realist," but when it involves the use of chemicals and undetermined hazards to air and water quality it adds an even greater concern. Development has been happening throughout the Lehigh Valley, especially over the past 15 years, but thankfully we haven't dealt with this sort of thing ... yet.

Thank you for this article, Jenae. This is such a critical issue. I've written about this in other forums extensively, and the truth about fracking is horrible and ugly. I'd write more here if it wasn't my busiest time of year. I hope you keep the conversation going until after Christmas. But I'll leave you with this video that was produced by students at NYU which is very clever and tells the story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=timfvNgr_Q4

For over 60 years my family has owned a vacation retreat a couple of miles from Hills Creek and we've seen first hand what the gas drilling activity has done to the area.  While I do not necessarily agree with fracking, I do want to reassure you of one thing, those bright lights and noise from the drilling & seismic testing will most likely be gone within a year, once they finish the drilling process.  It will take a little longer for the truck traffic, but once the rig is completed, the pipes laid, & the well is up and running, it will once again be peaceful and quiet.  On the downside, we will be left with the actual wells to look at on the horizon, but at least they are quiet and the wildlife does adapt.  We will have to wait and see what the future environmental impact will be.  :(

Thank you for this gut-wrenching article. It's a conversation we all need to have because whether or not fracking is occurring in your community, it is impacting every county in the state. Many groups are working hard to protect the Delaware River Watershed from the ravages of drilling. Two weeks ago, 73,910 signatures were delivered in protest. That's in addition to 68,000 delivered last summer. We need to make the current moratorium permanent! Liz, KeepTapWaterSafe.org

I can't help but wonder if we did not have a full Repub state gov where would the axe fall in the fracking controversy? If we had a part Demo state gov, for example, would we see the same stalemate as in the fed gov? If we had a full Demo state gov...would we see a 10% tax and the frackers scramble out of PA taking thousands of jobs with them? Gov. Corbett is using this new industry as a crutch to create jobs in a very poor economy. Crutch may be an understatement. Its more like his wheel chair at this point. I've written to Corbett with proof from other states with a long track record of 'accidents' and contaminations and asked him to re-think stock piling some money for when IT happens here. His response was we don't need to. Simple as that. Well time will tell. We've had our share of Govenors that will go down in history for bone-headed moves. Corbett, I hope, will not be added to that list. And I hope our water sheds remain as pure as possible. The fracking industry early on was all for paying a 2.5% tax...yes, a tax...on gas removed from the ground. Our legislature settled on 2.3% leaving .2% on the table. This .2% will amount to millions of dollars every year that was left behind. When someone tells you they will pay you X amount of money and you say, nope, Y amount...which is a lesser amount...is fine...you have to wonder: how much money is flowing under the table called 'contributions'? How DO these people keep getting re-elected?

The Republican elected agenda is to add jobs...plain and simple. It has come down to...at any cost; our health, our safety, our future. Fracking is a little known process to PA. From my research within states that have allowed this process for a lot longer than PA has, I have found three things: accidents/contaminations that need to be dealt with that take a lot of money to resolve, a higher return rate for the gas removed from the ground, and lots and lots of money that flows back to those put in change for making the rules. So far we have one: lots and lots of money flowing back to those making the rules. When does the money begin to flow in to clean up the messes that are sure to come? Where is our fair compensation? And we are not talking about $1M dollars. A town in western PA had every one of their wells contaminated by fracking. We, taxpayers, ended up footing a $3M+ bill for water lines to be installed to the next closest towns public water supply so the affected town had water. It became unsafe to drill any new water wells within miles of the affected area. Will this happen again? You betcha. Will the taxpayer pay for it again? Again...you betcha. Especially with the manner in which our state government has handled this MS deal.

make that "our" water supply compromised!

We need to keep the conversation going about this. As SW noted, it's "jobs at any cost" because job creation = re-election. EPA won't render a final decision about the safety of fracking until 2014 (thanks alot!!). How much drinking water will have been contaminated by then? Here's a link for further insights.

http://www.investmentu.com/2011/November/gasland-fracking-concerns.html

The next link shows the Corbett money trail from the energy companies. Follow the links therein for further insight. The public's well-being was put up for sale, folks.

http://www.followthemoney.org/database/uniquecandidate.phtml?uc=12904&gclid=COzysrX14KwCFYZ_5QodF1KMog

Trish, I really hope that's true, but one of the rangers told me he sees this process going on for many years to come - he actually threw out the year 2060 based on what he had heard regarding the gas supply! He also mentioned a layer of oil that will be the next focus in that area.

I know it benefits many of the farmers right now, but then, who will be farming? What will happened to the farmland that's been tainted by fracking chemicals? The 'what ifs' seem to be endless at this point ...

I certainly have mixed feelings about what's happening. On one hand we constantly complain about the economy and the cost of living and on the other we are concerned about the environment and the future for the generations yet to come. If this will help establish a reduction in living expenses for everyone without putting a burden on nature because we will import less oil and can become a more self sufficient country, then we should proceed with caution and diligence. If, on the other hand, it's just going to make the rich, richer and it will decimate our eco system for future generations, then we must take a stand and get our legislatures in office to make it stop.

I agree about "caution and diligence." Clearly we need the jobs, and we could certainly use the energy. But we can live without natural gas, we can't live without water. I think, if you look at neighboring shale states, you see some prudence. New York has moratorium on drilling, New Jersey is currently working on a bill to ban frack wastewater disposal in their state, even West Virginia has strict laws in place. Further afield, in Europe, Britain placed a moratorium on drilling after seismic activity was caused by Fracking, and France has an outright ban. Pennsylvania is like the guinea pig in a great hydrological experiment, and the rest of the world is looking to learn from our mistakes.

I take issue with the lightening speed at which Pennsylvania is exploiting this resource. Since January 2011, there have been 1,600 new Marcellus Shale wells drilled and a total of 2,882 new permits issued. That's up from a total of 1,386 Marcellus wells drilled in 2010. I think it would be only prudent to slow down. Science, and public debate, needs to catch up with this Gas Boom.

Food for thought on fracking:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/us/drilling-down-fighting-over-oil-and-gas-well-leases.html?_r=1&hp

There are a lot of different opinions on fracking! My wife and I were just at the Grand Canyon of PA this summer. The area is still very beautiful. I am a retired envirnmental engineer. I know that well drilling practices can be very protective of the environment if they are done correctly. I also know that environmental issues can be expensive and long lasting if poor practices are used. I am interested in learning about what happened at specific sites in PA where environmental issues have occurred.

This was an interesting development in relation to this article .... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/01/house-republicans-order-j_n_1246971.html

To learn the Truth about fracking go to http://fracknation.com/