A Letter to DEP Secretary John Hanger
Written by John Trallo   
Thursday, 16 September 2010 10:45
     DEP Secretary Hanger, et al,

    I was born and raised in Philadelphia and have lived in Sullivan County, Pa., for the past eight years. I have three college degrees, as well as teaching certificates in two states. In other words, I’m both  “street wise” and “book smart.”

    I was one who was in favor of gas drilling in Pennsylvania, at first. That is not my position now. It wasn’t any environmental propaganda or the Gasland documentary that turned my thinking around. It was a series of encounters with those in the industry that opened my eyes. They gave us the standard speeches: “We’re probably not going to be drilling anywhere near your property or this town, and if we do, you won’t even know we’re here; It’ll be like a fire hydrant in a field that you won’t even see; There are no environmental concerns either. The process we use is just water and sand. Just sign here and consider it ‘easy money’ for now.”
    As the construction workers and pipe   welders began to move into our town, I made it my business to “buddy up” to them. That’s when I started hearing things like, “Better have your water checked before they start drilling because it’s going to go bad once they get started. The water always goes bad, and they know it, but they won’t admit it.”
    I learned that everyone involved is an “independent contractor” and every company is an LLC (Limited Liability Corporation). That’s how they insulate themselves from being held liable when something goes wrong.
    Soon, we were literally being hounded–– four letters in the mail, numerous phone calls, five visits to our home- by an outfit called Tidelands Geophysical, LLC (TG) to do seismic testing on our property. Each time, I informed them that I was not interested and had no intention of having any testing done on our property. Each “visit” from TG got more aggressive. The fifth TG representative got downright nasty with me because I refused to sign. He told me that whether I lease our land or not, they’re going to get the gas. He also began to tell me that the gas companies don’t care about me, my family, my property, or my water. They’re only interested in the gas.
     He went on to tell me that no matter what I do, in two years, if this town is still here, it’s going to be a ghost town and my property won’t be worth a dime. I asked him to leave and told him that if he didn’t, I would call the police and file a complaint against TG. He laughed and said, “Go ahead. Nothing’s going to happen. Your state won’t protect you. They don’t care about you.
T    his state is already in business with the gas companies- bought and paid for- and we’re going to do whatever we want. Just wait until we start running pipelines through your little town. We’re getting forced pooling, eminent domain, right-of-way, anything we want from this dumb ass state. Go ahead and sue. Haha! You won’t win. And, if anyone tries to protest or give us any trouble, well, we got guns, too.”
    I began making calls to Chief Oil and Gas at its corporate office in Texas. I said I supported what it was doing up here and was interested in a job with Chief. (I lied.) The Chief representative assured me that I had “nothing to be concerned about because they’ve got all the money in the world and have ‘political influence’ and that the gas industry has the best PR people in the business. We’re going to be drilling in PA for the next 50 years. Hell, it’s going to be just like Texas!”
    I saw a young man walking around with a mini satellite transponder. I asked him why he was mapping out the town. He began to tell me that the gas companies were eventually going to have wells with 20-acre spacing throughout Sullivan County. I remarked, “This sounds like they’re planning to industrialize all of NEPA.” He said, “That’s the plan. Did anyone tell you people?”
    Every time I hear concerns expressed by the good citizens of NEPA, or reports of violations on the part of the gas companies, they’re followed with the same bureaucratic rhetoric: “This is not acceptable... We have to do better... We will do better... We’re looking into it... We’re going to get this right... We’re making advancements in protecting the environment.., etc.”
    I cringe every time I hear this is going to “create jobs, boost our economy, and help get us off foreign oil.” Anyone with half a brain and an ounce of common sense knows that’s not true. Remember the Alaskan Pipeline that was going to “save us from foreign oil” in the ‘70s that was paid for with taxpayer money? We’re selling that oil to Japan. Sure, it will create some jobs, but it will also eliminate many jobs in NEPA in agriculture, logging, farming, and the tourist and recreation trade. Who is going to want to vacation in an industrial zone? Who is going to take their family camping, swimming, boating, fishing, hunting, etc., next to a well pad, a frack pond, a dried-up creek, a polluted stream, or a compressor station? Who is even going to want to live here?

Fact:  Should our ground water become contaminated, we will lose our homeowner’s insurance.

Fact:  Without homeowner’s insurance, our mortgage company will demand the balance of our mortgage be paid-in-full immediately or it will foreclose.

Fact:  We couldn’t even sell our property if we wanted to once it’s contaminated, and neither could our neighbors.

Fact:  No mortgage company or bank will make a mortgage loan on a contaminated property, or one that is in close proximity to a contaminated property or water supply.

Fact: Under the PA PUC code, a privately owned pipeline company installing “gathering lines” does not qualify as a “public utility.” So, call it “right-of-way”, “right-of-convenience”, “forced pooling”, “forced grouping”, or “eminent domain” –it’s a corporate land grab that will have an adverse affect on the property values across NEPA and remove any negotiating power by the property owners to get fair market compensation for the use of their land.

Fact: Once an aquifer is polluted, there is no technology to restore it. Ask any geologist who is not being funded by the oil and gas industry.

Fact:  In every state that hydraulic fracturing has been implemented, property values have dropped and property taxes have increased to cover the damage to the infrastructure

Fact: The majority of “jobs” offered to local residents are minimum wage, or near minimum wage pay scale, and most of those jobs are only temporary.

Fact: They are known to cut corners. The “fines” they incur when there is a violation are already factored into their operating cost, and it’s still cheaper for them to pay the fines –if and when they’re caught– than it is for them to adhere to all the safety and environmental codes and guidelines.

    Yet, the DEP, our state legislators, and the gas companies continue to ask us to have faith and trust that things will eventually get better. I say to you all, “prove it.”
    It’s absolutely amazing to me that the leadership in Pennsylvania has gone out of its way to protect and accommodate an industry that has no regard for the environment, health, private property, family farms, and family owned businesses that will ultimately be ruined as the gas industry takes over Pennsylvania.
    You marginalize and try to ignore or discredit the Cornell Study on Fracturing by Dr. Ingrafea, Ph.D., and the Chemical Research Study on the endocrin disruptors found in fracking fluid, by Dr. Theo Colborn, Ph.D., and the independent water studies by PA Geologist George Turner, while you hide behind the tainted and misleading PSU study by Prof. Engelder (who, coincidentally, is heavily invested personally in natural gas development) that was funded entirely by the gas and oil industry. Incredible!
    Wyoming and Texas passed the FRAC Act, unfortunately, after a great deal of damage had been done, and New York has called for a   moratorium– regarding your response to NY criticizing PA for not having the courage or the political will to hold a moratorium and do further studies on the environmental impact before deciding to allow drilling. Do you seriously believe that the people of  Pennsylvania begrudge NY for calling a moratorium on gas drilling? On the contrary,  we applaud them and wish that the leadership in Pennsylvania had the intestinal fortitude to protect the people and the environment before bending over backwards for the oil and gas industry. (Besides, NY won’t be buying PA gas unless it buys it from China, Norway, or Canada.) I guess $2.8 million in “campaign  contributions” and “cash gifts” to certain “key businessmen” goes a long, long way. Shame on you!
    Now, if I’m wrong, or if the information I’ve come upon is inaccurate, please “prove it” to me so that when I sit in at township meetings, give testimony at public hearings, speak at public gas drilling forums, or suggest county zoning ordinances, I’ll be able to share that “proof” with other concerned citizens who, by the way... VOTE.