\nLast Saturday Molly and I drove to a gas well site several miles east of\n us. The surface owner met us part way there and led us over narrow \ntwisty roads past farms and houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The well we visited was \ndrilled and completed in autumn 2008. This is one of a number of \nrecently drilled wells that have adversely affected local groundwater \nand soil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pad was covered with lush tall clover, except for \nlarge bare areas. The owner said the clover is a recent attempt after a \nnumber of unsuccessful tries to get something to grow. He didn’t expect \nit to last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He pointed out the lack of deer trails through the \nclover, said that the local deer population dropped dramatically after \nthe well was fractured, with dead bodies being found in the hollow below\n the well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Molly noticed right off the numerous dead trees at two\n edges of the pad. He said that was where the gas drilling crew blew the\n fracture flowback while they sat in their trucks around a curve, away \nfrom the pad. He said that some of the trees’ bark began to fall off \nwithin a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When there was a forest fire that burned some acres\n of our woods in the 1980s, it was so hot that all the organic matter in\n the soil was destroyed. In spite of this, sassafras trees were \nspringing up in the bare soil a year later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were no sassafras trees in the blighted area at this well site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At\n the well site on Saturday, we took soil samples and in the bare areas \non the pad found chloride at 595 parts per million. In one of the bare \nareas pit liner was visible along about 35 feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The surface \nowner is angry, understandably so. He’s become disabled due to heavy \nmetal poisoning, which he attributes to his tainted water supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Flowback\n is what drillers call the liquid that comes up out of a well after it’s\n been fractured — a mixture of chemicals, brine, crude petroleum, and \nnaturally occurring substances (like radium and arsenic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Flowback\n is also the anger individuals and communities feel because of how \nthey’ve been treated by an oil and gas industry that is more interested \nin money than people and the environment.\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last Saturday Molly and I drove to a gas well site several miles east of us. The surface owner met us part way there and led us over narrow twisty roads past farms and houses. The well we visited was drilled and completed in autumn 2008. This is one of a number of recently drilled […]<\/p>\n