The trucks are on the move at the crack of dawn. They come and go all day long, one after another, sometimes two, three or four at a time, stacked up along the road waiting their turn. There will be as many as 20 fill-ups before the day is out--big full size rigs--tractor trailers that carry thousands of gallons of water for the process the gas drillers call “fracking.” They will take almost 100,000 gallons before the day is done. There is a steady crescendo of noise as they throttle up and gear down. The noise of the powerful water pumps never lets up hour after hour. All of this only a few hundred feet from your home, on the most beautiful spot on Pine Creek at the mouth of the high-quality trout stream known as Ramsey Run. The noise echoes back and forth from one canyon wall to the other, amplified in the process. The smell of exhaust from the tanker trucks fills the narrow gorge and a cloud of smog slowly settles in.

Where once the quiet was disturbed only by the cry of a hawk, the honking of geese, or the voices of a few fishermen or passing kayakers, now it is lost to the racket of a full-scale industrial undertaking. This is what it is like to find yourself living next to a site targeted by gas drillers as a source for the millions of gallons of water they need for each of their wells. This is what Mark Givler and his family lived through for months last year when Chief Oil and Gas, LLC and Range Resources Appalachia, LLC descended on Pine Creek at the edge of his property, before their water withdrawals were brought to a temporary halt by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The gas companies, however, intend to be back at it as soon as possible and already they have been given the go ahead by most of the responsible “regulatory” authorities.

The Givler family’s experience at their home in Cummings Township, Lycoming County, will not be unique. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has issued no fewer than 23 gas drill and operate permits for Cummings Township alone, all but eight of those in the last year. Millions of gallons of water are used in the process of fracking each well. The water will be taken from our streams, creeks, rivers and municipal water supply. The Susquehanna River Basin Commission has approved requests from gas companies to withdraw water from the Loyalsock Creek in Montoursville, the Muncy Creek in Picture Rocks and Penn Township, Larry’s Creek in Mifflin Township, and the Susquehanna River, in addition to Pine Creek at the Ramsey access site. This water will be trucked to the drilling sites over our roads in a virtually unbroken parade of heavy tankers. Aside from the quality of life issues noted above, all of this lightly regulated industrial activity and heavy truck traffic will give rise to serious safety concerns.

The Ramsey/Pine Creek access area, for example, is a tiny sliver of state owned creek frontage used, until now, by fishermen, swimmers, kayakers and scuba divers but never for industrial purposes, nor is it suitable for such purposes. Full-sized tractor trailers cannot safely maneuver from the roadway into and out of this spot in either direction. In fact, this site is located on a blind curve whether approached from the north or the south. To enter the site the tanker trucks must stop in the road and back into the driveway, blocking both lanes of an often busy highway in the process. State police have investigated this situation and concluded that it is dangerous and have recommended to Penn Dot that any driller using the site put out flagmen at a distance of 200 yards in both directions. Even these precautions may be inadequate to prevent an accident. They will only make the congestion on a busy summer day worse.

People living near any of the small stream pumping sites in use now or in the future, are likely to experience similar problems. None of our small streams are served by roads designed for heavy industrial use. It’s been said that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. If the people of this area want to protect their way of life they should keep their eyes open and contact their elected representatives and insist on full transparency and meaningful public participation regarding all gas exploration and drilling operations.



Michael Gross is a physician in Hughesville who hopes we find ways to minimize the effects of the natural gas industry on our people and our environment.

Mark Givler is an attorney in Lock Haven who lives along Pine Creek.