BEFORE AND AFTER IN DAMASCUS, PA
The real-life experience of GAS DRILLING...

AFTER:

Above is an example of a spill containing NORM,or Normally Occurring Radioactive Material, at a well site.  In our region the presence of radon gas indicates large deposits
of radium.  The drilling process will bring the radium and other radioactive materials to the surface and concentrate them. The NORM can then contaminate the soil and our drinking water.

This is a website put up by a community group in Fort Worth , Texas who are speaking truth about the gas drilling going on there - they are not a newspaper or government or commercial group - grassroots ...citizens..  Most all the gas drilling going on there started in 2001.  you also have to know that references to  Loop 820 refer to the highway bypass - Interstate 820  - that goes around Fort Worth. This website has extensive information
on it. 
 
The geology under Fort Worth is the same as here - there it is called the Barnett shale and here it is called the Marcellus shale - but it is the same ancient seabed that curls around and comes up this way.  Another common factor is one of the three major players there is Chesapeake Energy - who we have been told by folks in Fort Worth will say anything to get people to sign and then they do as they please.

www.fwcando.org

ALSO - note that the gas companies there are projecting upwards of 3000 wells inside of loop 820 (about 100 square miles) - that means for Damascus over 2000 wells on our 85 square miles - or over 25 wells per square mile or averaged over the township area , a well every 25 acres. - each well pad covers 3 to 5 acres  -plus connecting pipelines and roads.  It takes about 30 days of 85 to 90 decibel around the clock noise, 3 to 5 million gallons of water  - goes down clean comes up polluted - to do the initial drilling - then another million gallons for each time a hydraulic fracturing is done - see lists of pollutants that go with this process - According to  folks in Fort Worth each of these wells is a constant center of activity - workers, trucks, 24 hour lights  for the 5 to 10 year life of the well  ... and here and there explosions, fires.  See the links  section for some of these events and water table problems and pollutions.

Also see the slideshow of pictures in the  VIDEOS  section on NORM.   This is Normally Occurring Radioactive Material. You are probably aware of the commonly occurring radioactive gas, radon, in our area.  This radon indicates the presence of large underground deposits of radium, in addition to other radioactive materials which lie buried beneath us. These NORMs are concentrated by the flow of materials in and out of the wells - see the pictures and captions.  

Texas, but not Pennsylvania, allows municipalities to specify things like -the distance a gas well can be from a residence or or structure and from streams, etc. - you will hear people talking about this - In PA  the state Oil and Gas Law which takes preeminence over local municipal codes including zoning states that a gas well can be as close as 200 FEET FROM A RESIDENCE OR OTHER STRUCTURE AND 100 FEET FROM A STREAM.  The other difference is that you will also hear is that some of these people do not own the mineral rights beneath their land, and they cannot keep the gas drilling out of their property.  Some people in Texas do own the mineral rights below their land.
This video was shown on 60 Minutes and on a National Geographic  special.