• Font Size    

Most Popular Videos Featured On KDKA.com

Pittsburgh Festivities Kickoff Holidays
E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

Some Concerned About Natural Gas Drilling

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

   Print     Share +   
May 28, 2009 8:20 pm US/Eastern

Some Concerned About Natural Gas Drilling

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― The rush is on to create new jobs for people who lease their land.
However, some people say they don't want that just yet.

"What we're seeing here is a state of the art drilling operation that you'll only see in a few places in the United States of America," said Matt Pitzarella, of Range Resources.

Exploration companies are in a rush to exploit the potential of the Marcellus Shale Basin, which is the largest shale deposit in the nation, underlying southwestern Pennsylvania.

Pitzarella says, "We have more shale opportunities in Pennsylvania than almost all the shale basins combined."

Companies like Range Resources are touting the potential for tens of thousands of new jobs and lucrative royalty leases for property owners.

He says Range Resources has "already created five millionaires and that number is only going to increase dramatically."

But Ron Gulla, who made that kind of money when he leased his 141 acre farm, says he regrets when he signed the paper. He said that Range Resources has turned his once pristine spread into a nightmare of dust and noise.

"It's not a farm any more. The peace is gone" said Gulla.

The drills tunnel down as deep as a mile and blast the shale with water, sand and some other chemicals to loosen the gas.

Gulla says that contaminants from that process have polluted his pond, something Range Resources and the state Department of Environmental Protection deny.

Officials with Range Resources say after the drilling, farms like those are restored to their natural state. A new study shows that concern over runoff deposits in the Monongahela River were not nearly as severe as originally suspected.

"I think we've rushed to begin the drilling process and not yet done the science-based research and the health-based research to make sure we are safe," said environmentalist, Lisa Graves Marcucci.

Still people like Albie Rienhart are eager to lease their land.

"I look favorable on it, not so much for the royalties, but I think this natural gas is a real opportunity for Greene County," Rienhart insists.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Featured Slideshows On KDKA.com

You need the latest Flash player to view video content.
Click here to download.

Click here to bypass this detection if you already have the latest Flash Player.

KDKA Investigators

Top News Stories

© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.