PA Natural Gas Drilling: Yay or Nay?

Last week, I was listening to NPR while driving home from school, and caught the end of an interview. This interview was with an agricultural specialist and he was discussing, at the time I listened in, the natural gas drilling. As someone who likes to be educated about things that are being done to improve our current environmental situation, my ears perked up.

Later I asked my husband about the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. As a sustainability professional, he was able to break down for me the seemingly wonderful alternative of drilling natural gas, thus lessening our dependence on oil.

Although this does not pertain solely to Pittsburgh, the right to drill natural gas in the Marcellus Shale was just passed by Governor Randall, and applies to all of Pennsylvania. In order to balance the PA monthly budget, Governor Randall agreed to Marcellus Shale drilling in PA. At first glance, he had good reason to. On a positive note, natural gas produces much less CO2 than other forms of energy per amount of energy produced, not to mention, like I said, it balanced our budget.

But, what is it about this natural gas drilling that has educated and specialized professionals such as my husband worried? Why do they think this is a disaster in the making?

The Marcellus Shale is “a Middle Devonian-age black, low density, carbonaceous (organic rich) shale that occurs in the subsurface beneath much of Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.” In as recent as 2008 it was estimated that the Marcellus Shale contained over 500 million cubic feet of natural gas. This amount of energy could potentially provide for the entire U.S. for two years, and be worth close to a trillion dollars.

We’ve struck gold!

Taken at face value, it seems this process is too good to be true. In reality, it is just that. In order to extract this natural gas from the shale that sits 1 mile below the ground, “fracking” chemicals are added to millions of gallons of water that is pumped at high pressures, deep into the rock, in order to push out the natural gas. The problems with this process of extraction are many fold. Firstly, current law regulations do not require that the drilling companies report the “fracking” chemicals being used, so no one knows what is going into our groundwater. The millions of gallons of water that are used become contaminated and unusable. Where is all this water going to go? And, how is it going to be treated if its contaminants are unknown? Second, in order to get to the gas, they have to drill extremely deep. In doing so, the water is exposed to radioactive material. Third, by drilling, they are going to mess up the groundwater and aquifer systems and contaminate or dry up streams, creeks, and wells.

With this knowledge at hand, it is quite possible that the environmental cost of this drilling will by far outweigh the economic and carbon-saving benefits that are anticipated.

We currently fight wars for oil. Next it will be wars for water. (And, they already have begun.) We might want to think twice about ruining something that is going to be worth its weight in gold in our near future.


*I feel like the “bones” for an environmental argument may be here. But just in the little time it took me to do some research, talk to my husband and format this blog, I realize how complicated writing about environmental issues can be. In order to write a successful argument, I feel a lot of research needs to be done. There are constant battling forces between every argument and to complete a successful essay, both sides should, at least, be recognized. I also notice that as soon as I start conveying facts or arguments, I lose a lyricism or language to my writing. I think it will take time and practice to merge the two together; a patience I intend to welcome as I spread my writing wings.*