As mentioned,that area will never be the same.
Coal company's have been taking mountain tops off in this part of Appalachia,Kentucky, for years ... it ain't a pretty picture.

The land looks as if machinery raped Mother Earth, and basically just left her,until local politicians started barking. Now it looks like a beautiful mountain, with the top cut off ... with a few elk on it and grass.

I'm afraid the concerns of World-Class trout will be last in line and get the most "fracking!"

It's all 'bout the Benjamins!

I believe that we need to look at the entire picture and realize what other things affect stream ecosystems. More streams are polluted everyday by developments, road construction, and human waste than all by the oil and gas industry. The PA game commission is distributing solid human waste infected with viruses and bacteria on many game lands, includeing sgl 321, that can kill and harm animals and humans. No one questions this? Also, those who question and worry about coal, oil and gas production in this country, please stop using electric, gasoline or plasic. I am a graduate from the University of Maryland in Natural Resource Management and have hunted and worked in Alaska, Wyoming, Colorado, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Quebec and their are many other issues we should address

There are many trout streams in Pa. already polluted by stripmine run-off. It ain't pretty. This "fracking" practice seems destructive on multiple levels. I hate to think what it'll be be like after a couple decades of this.

ironpeteo827, Yes, we are pumping water from the Allegheny up to SGL 59. The Allegheny has no issues with it, the river has been at flood stage much of the summer and taking water for the four wells in the area and reusing it for each well will harmless water than the allegheny electric plant near Warren PA.

To Go_fish and sanjuanworm-Thank you for being sportsmen and writing in as insiders who work in the gas industry and for contributing to the discussion.

Go_fish states, "a typical well is frac’d only once and the largest jobs are about 4 million gallons . . . In regard to “Toxic Chemicals” in frac fluids – plain old water and sand comprise over 99.5% of the frac fluids."

1/2 of a percent of 4 million is still 20,000 gallons. I couldn't get the link to the remaining additives to work, but the manufacture and transportation alone of 20,000 gallons of chemicals is not without its impact, and that is before the cocktail is put into the ground. Is this the best we can do? Maybe it is.

Sanjuanworm states, "The thing you need to remember when talking about the water fracturing of the formation (fracking), it takes place thousands of feet underground. It does not pollute the water supplies, as some of you seem to think."

As of November 2009, a private consulting firm detected metals, toxic chemicals and industrial solvents in at least 24 residential wells near Dimock, PA. One residential well collected enough methane gas to explode. The State of Pennsylvania is suing one and possibly a second gas company for failure to adequately address the contamination of these residential wells. The affected residents had no issues with their well water until fracking began nearby. Where did the solvents come from if not from the fracking process? Also, contamination does not just occur due to fracking itself, but in one instance, 8000 gallons of fracturing fluids leaked out of its containment vessel and seeped into a freshwater stream.

I have an acquaintance who has been employed as an industrial chemist since 2001 and recently purchased a farm in north-central PA. He is concerned about fracking in the area and before closing on the property he paid for the most sophisticated test of the well water that is possible today, in order verify that the water is safe and also to establish and document a baseline of his water quality should contamination occur in the future.

Gas drilling, oil drilling, mining, etc and nature can and will coexist as long as we are alive as a species on this planet. What is needed is enough oversight to assure this happens correctly, and this is what is in question in PA. The gas, oil and mining companies cannot be trusted to regulate themselves and continue to prove this time after time. When there is a dollar to be made and no one is looking, shortcuts will be taken. All of us need to watch to assure they are operating using the best practices known today, including the employees of gas companies who have written above. Mistakes will be made and the best practice standards will need to be revised to account for things we will learn along the way. Nature is resilient, but water quality is a serious issue. Pollution, environmental degradation and habitat destruction should not be allowed to occur for a resource without using the best technology available in order to minimize the environmental impact.

I am not even close to being a tree hugger. However, we need to preserve our environment. We should allow SOME drilling, but it should happen on a much smaller scale. Maybe allow 1 well to be drilled per every 1,000 acres or more. After the well has stopped producing, the gas company should be required to return the well site to its previous condition, removing any signs of the well ever being there. However, our politicians will never be able to agree on anything. For the politicians it will be either black or white, either we drill or we don't drill. But as someone already said, it's all about the benjamins...

Drilling needs to be as responsible as possible, more wells require more drilling but not more always more PADS ie more land. Directional drilling allows multiple wells from the same pad. It allows the company to make big production & big money but limits the ground disturbance. Water can be treated & reused if it is to expensive/hard to get from streams, just put big price tags on it. However the Gas is used in homes & power plants, not in Executive offices, so this is not the gas companies fault, they are suppling a demand, people in large & small cities use the gas, WE are the problem too, not only the other guys.

I’ve been working in the oil and gas industry for 30 years and currently work with the Marcellus shale in PA. I believe that some of the article is misleading and there are some omissions and exaggerations.

I have never heard of a 9 million gallon frac job, nor are wells frac’d “a few times during its life” – a typical well is frac’d only once and the largest jobs are about 4 million gallon. While that sounds like a lot of water, it isn’t much in comparison to other water users. For example, all frac jobs over the entire Marcellus shale area will use much less water than golf courses use to water grass in the same region.
About the comment - “it’s cheaper to run a fire hose to a local source” - a typical water withdrawal is done at a rate more like a garden hose. Before being granted a permit to withdrawal water from any source many hydrologic and environmental studies are completed. We spend many hours collecting and researching data and then submit a detailed application to the DEP - all for a single, specific withdrawal site. If the DEP does grant a permit for withdrawal, the allowed rate is only a small fraction (about 1%) of the typical stream flow. In a typical stream the temporary water level reduction is about 1/16 of an inch. In the event of drought, we would need to shut down. In addition, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission regulate the withdrawal to minimize the effect on fish and habitat.

In regard to “Toxic Chemicals” in frac fluids – plain old water and sand comprise over 99.5% of the frac fluids. The following link contains a list of the remaining small amount of additives. You will notice that nearly all of the chemicals are also found in food and household products. When the fluids are produced back water treatment is also highly regulated by the DEP.
http://www.pamarcellus.com/MSC-Fracing.pdf
About the concerns over run-off and habitat fragmentation – only about 2% to 3% of the surface is affected by development. This minimal impact is an amazing accomplishment that is possible only through the use of new drilling technologies. In addition, after drilling is complete we completely restore well sites to only a 100 ft radius around the well which further reduces the impact during the producing life of the well. After the well is finished we restore the remainder of the site. The footprint of a shale gas well is much smaller than other forms of energy.

I have worked all over the world in the oil and gas business. In nearly all countries the government own and develop minerals. One of the great things about America is that we - individuals - own the oil and gas along with other minerals. Individuals have leased their land to gas companies. Thus, the gas companies are acting on behalf of the land owner. As pointed out in the article, many land owners have had Jed Clampett like experiences with the Marcellus shale. The rest of us throughout America will get lower energy prices where we can live the good life with affordable energy.

One last thing - I know some great fishing spots in crystal blue water next to offshore oil platforms in the Gulf ..... but I’m going to keep those a secret.

This is exactly the kind of thing that sportsman need to stand together against. Does anyone know if Trout Unlimited is involved in this? If not, they need to be.

Without opposition, developers will dam, mine, drill, and blast our resources to insignificance. There seems to be something new every day It's appalling.

Congrats to F&S for picking up on this story... These things are important, and the public's education and involvement is key.

The main thing that all of you are forgetting, or are conveniently leaving out is--Trout fishing and gas drilling can coexist nicely. I live on the San Juan River in NW New Mexico. It is one of the continent's premier trout waters, with gas wells all over the place, and drilling continuing regularly.
The thing you need to remember when talking about the water fracturing of the formation (fracking), it takes place thousands of feet underground. It does not pollute the water supplies, as some of you seem to think. The problem the author was refering to is the stealing of water from small streams. Of course this is a bad practice---just common sense. Water should be taken from ground water sources or larger surface supplies.
After the fracking process, the water is either evaporated in lined pits or is injected back into deep disposal wells. The rules are already in place in Pennsylvania, just as they are in New Mexico and Colorado.
On the subject of directional drilling: It is done to PROTECT the environment rather than destroy it. One well pad and one access road can be built with multiple wells into different formations drilled from the same location. This gives us more access to gas with less environmental impact.
Please get all the facts before you let all the "environmentalists" blow smoke up your skirts. I am as much an environmentalist as any one of you, and I make my living from the processing of natural gas. I take my love of nature to work with me every day, as do my coworkers. I know we all resent the idea that we are evil, greedy polluters. It is simply not the case. We hunt, fish, hike, camp...enjoy God's Creation. We are stewards of all of creation.

My hunting/fishing cabin is about 2 miles south of NY state. Gas companies approached every landowner within like a 35 mile radius. Everyone took the deal. They better not "frack" my stream. If they do, they will be killing hundreds of Pennsylvania's state fish, the Brook trout. Shouldn't there be some kind of law against that or something?

Contact your district Congressman and Senator and tell them this Fracting practice needs federal EPA oversight. Phone calls and Faxes are a good way to do it.

Also tell your friends about this.

Letting an industry regulate itself consistently proves to be a big mistake.

Hopefully we'll also be able to change the financial payoff to legislators by special interests too.

I love the magazen, however I was very unhappy about this artical. I live in western Colorado and it was almost over night, after the 2008 elections, that most every friend of mine lost there jobs. Most of my friends work in the gas and oil indistery. Because of the loss of their jobs they are not hunting this year. This is a even a bigger loss to the state and the state wild life funds. I just hope this magazen does not become a mouth peace for the left wing. We do need to protect the enviorment, however not at the cast of valubal jobs.

Gas, Oil, Silver or GOLD--It doesn't matter. Our DNR here in Iowa wouldn't allow this type of activity, Hands Down! If folks up there want to preserve their trout streams, I strongly recommend you contact your senators or representatives and DNR and have some solid laws enacted immediately to preserve what is yet untouched!--(and repair what's already been damaged!)

On the fracking fluid having only 1/2 of a percent that is not water or sand, I'd like to give this little analogy. Imagine you have two barrels. One is full of fine wine and the other is raw sewage. If you take a cup full of wine and pour it into the other barrel, you still have one barrel full of fine wine and one barrel full of raw sewage. But if you take a cupful of raw sewage and pour it into the fine wine, you now have two barrels filled with raw sewage. The small number does not relieve my concern that large quantities of poisonous materials are being pumped deep into the earth without any means of containing it.

Here in MI, we have been holding off the 'Kentecot Mining Company' for a very similar reason. I would hate to see this happen where I fish and hunt. In order to be hear, you have to speak up, every person counts.

How does the old saying go:
Bring your lawyers, guns and money.
Thanks for nothing big oil and politicians.
It's sad.