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Federal judge rejects Marcellus drillers’ contempt claim against US Forest Service in Pa.
ERIE, Pa. — A federal judge has rejected claims by Marcellus shale drillers that the U.S. Forest Service was in contempt of the judge’s 2009 order requiring the service to start processing drilling requests in the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania.
The drillers claimed the forest service violated the order by denying drillers the use of surface or groundwater for hydraulic fracking and by taking more than 60 days to process the drilling notices.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (http://bit.ly/H9zjga ) reported Monday that the judge agreed the law doesn’t allow the forest service to deny drillers access to water and the mineral rights beneath the surface of land the forest service controls. But the judge says the forest service can still ban the use of the water as part of its limited rights to control how drillers operate in the forest.
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Information from: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, http://pghtrib.com
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The concern to me is the large amount of water it takes to frack these giant wells. Once the water is used and flows back, it is contaminated. This water becomes an enviormental liability. It is tainted with both chemicals and radioactive properties.
The sad thing is companies have other alternatives that are better for the enviorment but not as good for the bottom line. I think if the general public was aware of these issues it would not be as easy for the oil companies to use these methods. Nobody knows the overall outcome but we are trusting that everything will be o.k. I think we might want to take a closer look and open our eyes.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against drilling and think we need to utilize this abundant energy but at the same time I don’t want to be lax when it comes to our enviorment. It is a major responsibility and should never be taken lightly. We as a community must insist that these companies respect our land and our lives. No cutting corners. If these methods are proving to be damaging then consider other alternatives.