Where precious and pristine meets politics and polution.

Greetings to all that love the precious place where Pine Creek meets Little Pine Creek...

To my friends, family and those elected officials I included in my distribution list, please read this account of a college junior and journalist who set out to see for himself the devastation brought on by leasing our State Forests to the Gas Barons.

Don't take my comments as criticism or opinions from afar, I to have recently traveled the trails and kayaked the creeks to see first hand the smudge that fracking has put on our beautiful land.

Let's all do what we can... And to those of you who have kayaked Big Pine, swam or fished Little Pine, or had a picnic with us at the Vista, please do what you can to preserve this precious place. I'd like to see our kids, and our kid's kids have the same opportunity.

Thom



Gas drilling destroying Pennsylvania forests

By Nathan Pipenberg edited for length - a.g.
Collegian Columnist

. . . This past weekend, a friend and I took a trip up to Waterville, a small town in Lycoming County. . . I had heard from other hikers that the miles of trails near Waterville are some of the most depressing around because they’re located right on top of the Marcellus Shale formation and are a hot spot for gas drilling.
They were right.

We hiked about three miles, and afterward drove another 10 miles on public forest roads in the area. Over this short distance, we saw three well sites on the mountaintops and two pipelines cutting directly back into the valley.

From the moment we stepped out of our car at the base of the mountain, we could already hear what we would see at the top — engines revving, pipes being laid and beeps emanating from machines being put into reverse. It sounded like a highway was being constructed on the mountain top.

During our hike, we walked directly past a gas pad we found cutting across a public access hiking trail. I took photos from the trail, proving what the gas companies don’t want us to know. The fact is, each well pad resembles a small town. The mountain tops are clear cut, paved with tons of gravel and inhabited by dozens of trucks, bulldozers and storage containers the size of freight cars.

I snapped a shot of the well permit. We left when a security guard approached us and told us to put away the camera. When we told her we accessed the well from a public trail, she said she wasn’t aware one even existed nearby.

As we hiked out, my friend and I realized we were lucky to bring enough water for the day. But if we hadn’t, it’s likely that we would have been filling our bottles from the stream flowing down the mountainside — water that originated right next to the well pad.
Plus, the trail we were on is not just a day-hiking trail but one that many people use for extended backpacking trips. During multi-day trips, backpackers rely on purifying water they find in the forest.

But I cannot imagine putting any of the water I found on Saturday near my lips.
Hikers are not the only ones at risk in this situation. The gas pad we saw sits above a tributary to Pine Creek, a popular destination in Pennsylvania for fishing, boating and sight-seeing. As we hiked back down the mountain, I noticed that a pipeline coming from the gas pad is being constructed to cut back down the mountain and follow the tributary toward Pine Creek and Waterville.

This, too, is disturbing. I can only imagine that if that pipeline were to leak, hazardous gas or fracking water would spill into the creek.
From our vantage point at the first drilling site, we could see another well rising above the trees on the other side of the valley. We decided to see it for ourselves. As we headed up a forest road, this time in our car, we found two more well sites in about half an hour.
One was in the early stages of construction, since the drilling company had only recently received clearance to start working, according to signs posted near the site. But already, they have dug a retention pond the size of several football fields where they will store water for the fracking process.

If all 700,000 acres will be impacted as heavily as the Tiadaghton, Pennsylvanians should prepare for our forests to become nothing more than industrial wasteland.
Gov. Tom Corbett has made his intentions clear. While campaigning in 2010 he said he was prepared to open more state forest land for drilling.

There are many trails that cut through the heart of drilling activity. A walk along one of the trails won’t be the most scenic, but it will be the most eye-opening.
And when you go, bring your camera and document the destruction.

Nathan Pipenberg is a junior majoring in journalism and international politics He is The Daily Collegian’s Wednesday columnist. Email him at ndp5045@psu.edu

Note: A .pdf on road restrictions in the Waterville area is attached.