BRADFORD COUNTY USA: Here comes our future

Bradford County PA, 90 miles west of the Delaware River Basin, shows us the face of shale gas drilling's industrialization in ruined air and drinking water along with huge drilling-related trucks ("frack trucks") everywhere, out of scale with small towns, some of whose streets (like Wyalusing) are eerily deserted.

Photographed by Jane Prettyman (with apologies for soviet camera), host of 'Public Comment' (www.pubcomm.blogspot.com). Music: "Wheels" by Jason Shaw (Creative Commons) and "Sacrifice" by Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A WORD ABOUT TERMINOLOGY:

The generic term "frack trucks" covers all shale gas drilling and production-related trucks including dump trucks (often Mack trucks) working on construction or excavation of gas well pads; water tanker trucks (up to 65 feet long) bringing thousands of gallons of water to each well site for hydraulic fracturing operations; sand trucks for hydraulic fracturing operations; tankers and flatbed trucks carrying hydraulic fracturing chemicals for hydraulic fracturing operations; tankers hauling thousands of gallons of flowback waste (sometimes radioactive) from vertical drilling and hydraulic fracturing operations; as well as other trucks involved in shale gas production such as pipeline and compression station construction.

Even if drilling-related trucks do NOT carry deleterious substances, they cause road damage whose repair costs are often not covered by the state or the drilling companies, absorbed by local communities or repairs are never done and asphalt surfaces are ground down to dusty/muddy rutted tracks. Bridges are worn out. The trucks create traffic backups in small towns; they travel in convoys on small roads and highways alike; use scenic byways as truck routes where their size and appearance ruin the viewshed and where their exhaust fumes pollute the air, ruining regional recreational economies. Their piercing diesel brakes (often "Jake brakes") are noisy. Diesel exhaust fumes are laced with carcinogenic benzene and other toxic compounds. Drilling-related trucks are often so wide and massive that average local drivers have difficulty passing them on narrow country roads. Drilling-related trucks often speed.

If the drilling-related trucks DO carry toxic materials, they can veer off roads, roll down embankments, break open and release their contents into rivers and streams, ruining drinking water for thousands or even millions (depending on the river). They can spill their contents into fields and wetlands. Their contents are not regularly inspected by public agencies and often they carry no labels showing contents for first responders. They can explode. These are dangerous vehicles and with so much attention (rightly) to environmental contamination, they have fallen under the radar without adequate community preparation (enlightening the public about what's coming) before shale gas drilling is permitted to proceed.

So, with all these various types and contents of drilling-relating trucks they are mostly in some way related to hydraulic fracturing and thus are called "frack trucks."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• shale gas drilling
• hydraulic fracturing
• Bradford County